We suddenly find ourselves in the Vaccine Club. Prior to that, we had vowed to drive up to two hours from home to get the COVID vaccine if we had to. After registering in seven counties in Florida, we were surprisingly chosen from the lottery in our home county to get the Moderna vaccine. Having never won a lottery before, we were thrilled. We hopped in our car the next day, got in line at the drive-thru along with the other cars, greeted the Nurses, stuck out our arms, and waited 30 minutes in our car prior to driving home. With what took just a little over an hour, we found ourselves in the club. The Vaccine Club!
While on the way home, almost like with survivors’ guilt, we ran a mental check list of those whom we knew who had received the vaccine and those who had not been so lucky. For those who had not, we got on the phone. We made some calls and connected them as best as we could to counties offering the vaccine. But overall, the vaccination seemed to be more than just a shot. It was an opportunity to be more of a human being and that was an unexpected eye opener for us.
But, with all good things, a little rain must fall. The good news was that this week, Johnson & Johnson was approved as the third vaccine. And so the controversy began. Hours after the J&J vaccine was approved by the FDA, Roman Catholic leaders in St. Louis and New Orleans advised Catholics that the COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson was “morally compromised” because it is produced with using a cell line derived from an aborted fetus. Johnson & Johnson immediately issued a statement stressing that there is no fetal tissue in its vaccine. The truth is that the J&J COVID-19 vaccine is made using a harmless cold virus, called an adenovirus, the same technology it used to produce a successful Ebola vaccine. Amen.
As we step into the “club,” we await our follow-up, 30-day second injection on April Fool’s Day, no less. Right now, we are watching the world as it evolves one year later into the COVID world. We wonder if emotional intelligence has allowed us to evolve in a way that the world will benefit from its changes? Will humans learn anything from this pandemic and begin to embellish the components of healthy emotional intelligence? Will we move ahead as a race and embrace self and social-awareness, self and relationship management, and empathy? Or will we as a race, regress and revert to selfishness, victimization, and manipulation of others’ emotions.
Let us ask ourselves if emotional intelligence can be used as an asset and not a liability? This is our choice, both as a race and individually. As we one by one enter the club, we find that we have the opportunity to call on our own emotional intelligence of caring, compassion and gratitude. As we humans move along the COVID continuum, let us hope that we will become more of a humane society in the process. What an opportunity this presents to us!
“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word `crisis.` One brush stroke for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger but recognize the opportunity.”
John F. Kennedy
