OPINION
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
A5
FROM THE
NEWSROOM
Bill Bradshaw
First-hand
account
of getting
the vaccine
E
NTERPRISE — I must admit,
when my boss suggested I write
an account of what it’s like to
get the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine,
I almost sluffed it off, thinking there
wouldn’t be much to say. After all, I may
be no spring chicken, but I’m gener-
ally pretty healthy and didn’t expect I’d
experience much of a reaction. At 67, I
rarely get sick, have no immune system
issues and thought I might get off scot
free.
How wrong I was.
To begin with, this in no way is to
attempt to impart medical knowledge or
advice; I’m a journalist, not a medical
professional. It’s just the experience of
one person who got the vaccine.
The first shot wasn’t worth more than
a paragraph. I walked into the Clover-
leaf Hall on March 16, they had me fill
out a minimal amount of paperwork and
gave me the shot. Then I waited along
with about 20 others for the required 15
minutes to make sure I didn’t pass out or
have other adverse reactions. That was
it. No soreness in the arm; I didn’t even
bleed at the injection site.
But Tuesday, April 13, was a little
different.
That was the day our daughter,
Amber, who is a registered nurse in
Twin Falls, texted us about her hospi-
tal ordering a halt to administering the
Johnson & Johnson vaccine. My wife,
Margaret, had taken it the same day I got
my first Moderna shot. Amber knew this
and wanted to make sure her mom was
OK. Margaret hasn’t noticed any ill side
effects of the vaccine — she even said
she felt energized after receiving it.
Not so for me. Again, receiving the
second Moderna shot and the wait time
were inconsequential. I went in at 7 a.m.
because Tuesday is our big production
day for the week’s paper and I didn’t
want to be away for that. In fact, I’d
even worked late Monday to get a story
done I otherwise might have done Tues-
day morning. I didn’t want anything to
get in the way of that.
But I was fine most of Tuesday. Oh,
I was a little tired, but that could’ve
been as easily from having worked late
the previous night as any of the warned
fatigue from the second Moderna shot.
We got the paper put to bed by about
2 p.m. and after making plans for the
next week, I took the rest of the after-
noon off, as much because of working a
long Monday as to make sure I wasn’t
feeling the vaccine-related fatigue. I did
feel a little tired, but I’m still not sure
what the cause was.
Then came Tuesday night. I usually
sleep like a log. I’ll go to sleep in one
position and rarely move all night —
just ask Margaret.
But that night, I woke in the middle
of the night shivering, shaking and a bit
feverish. I got up and put on a T-shirt
and was able to get back to sleep.
I had planned to go to the usual
Wednesday-morning Bible study I
attend at 6:30 a.m. But when I got up, I
was stumbling around and Margaret sent
me back to bed.
“You won’t go to hell for missing one
Bible study,” she said.
I usually make my own breakfast —
I’m just picky about how everything has
to be cooked, but that day, Margaret did
it for me, which I greatly appreciated.
Oh, the bacon was a bit crisp, but it was
generally great.
Then, she wouldn’t even let me go to
work on time and insisted I get an extra
couple of hours of sleep since I was still
stumbling around.
I did manage to get up and to work
by 9:30 a.m. It’s not that my job is phys-
ically stressful, so I managed, though
all day Wednesday I still was a bit tired
and unsteady. We had another event at
church that evening, at which I managed
alright.
By Thursday, I could still feel a lit-
tle of the fatigue, but not much. There
was no pain in the shoulder where I got
the shot. There were no headaches, mus-
cle pain or nausea. They say it’s another
couple or three weeks before it’s fully
effective, but that should do the trick.
But I still have questions:
• Will I need an annual booster?
• What about this so-called “herd
immunity” we’ve heard about?
• When can I stop wearing a face
mask?
But I guess I’ve survived — both
COVID and the vaccine meant to cure it.
———
Bill Bradshaw is a reporter for the
Wallowa County Chieftain.
Viewing COVID from our perch
MAIN STREET
Rich Wandschneider
L
iving in Wallowa County is a privi-
lege, not only because of the natural
beauty, small size and friendly peo-
ple, but because it is removed enough from
the American mainstream to be a perch
from which to see the world. In recent years
I’ve come to see age, too, as a perch from
which to see the past and understand the
present.
Our corner of NE Oregon has been and
continues to be a haven from the COVID
pandemic that is still sweeping the nation.
As COVID-19 marches across America and
the world, strikes nearby Umatilla County
forcefully and lays a heavy hand on Union
County and neighboring Idaho, we squeak
along with few cases and very few fatalities.
Some might think that God is blessing
us, but it’s more likely that our rural, dis-
persed population and outdoor living has
more to do with it. All winter long, I walked
the dog a mile each morning, and there
were always others walking dogs or doing it
on their own. Backcountry skiers skied, and
Fergi allowed children of all ages to breathe
mountain air. Still, many I know stayed
close to home; some have still not left the
county in a year.
We got together, conservatives and lib-
erals, Catholics and the unchurched, to sup-
port the local food bank and restaurants
offering takeout, and developed our own
relief programs before the government pro-
grams hit, and continue to push funds into
needy pockets today. Our Rotary Club lent
special support — including delivery of the
Chieftain — to Meals on Wheels and pro-
moted a potato drive that took up the slack
left when Portland restaurants could not use
Pat Thiel’s organic potatoes.
My image of the rest of the world from
this high perch is one of density, scram-
ble and selfishness. People don’t want
to live five to a room and 10 to an apart-
ment next to other rooms and apartments
just as crowded, but that’s where many
found themselves when COVID hit. Nurs-
ing homes hit early were coastal — not in
remote places like ours — and caretakers,
underpaid and often living in those crowded
apartments, often women of color, spread
the disease among their families. Indian
reservations with poor plumbing, large,
extended families, and a probable genetic
weakness against the virus, were hit hard in
the early days. And the medical community,
from ambulance to ER room, struggled, and
many picked up the contagion.
College students — young, restless, and
like the young always feeling invincible —
became major spreaders of the disease. I
think we should have vaccinated the young
first, or at least concentrated on those liv-
ing in fraternity houses and crowded farm-
worker housing.
Our own medical establishment calmly
picked up the occasional case — my grand-
son brought it home from Portland, but was
quickly diagnosed and quarantined, and it
spread no further — followed and extin-
guished it. And although we have people
here who deny that COVID exists, or that
it is anything more than the flu, and flaunt
cautions to mask and distance, the major-
ity of us have minded our — and our com-
munity’s — manners. The doctors say that
the normal seasonal flu and even the com-
mon cold have had trouble spreading in the
county this winter.
It is now vaccination time, and the
deniers and anti-vaxxers are forming a
front, locally and across the country, that
threatens the prospect of developing herd
immunity. It’s apparently young, white men
who are most resistant, which makes sense.
Young men are always looking for a dare.
Older men and women — and here we
come to the age perch — remember polio
and mumps and measles, and know the effi-
cacy of vaccinations. When I joined the
70-plus remembering crowd for my vacci-
nation, there were men and women, Repub-
licans and Democrats. I remembered being
hauled to a neighbor’s house so that I would
get chickenpox young, when it was not so
serious. A friend recently told me that his
father was 9 when he got the mumps, the
youngest of several brothers. The older ones
were all sterile.
Many of us remember standing in lines
at school to be vaccinated for unnamed dis-
eases, and then for polio. We remember
magazine photos of children in iron lungs;
some of us remember children taken from
our classrooms. And right now, in Wallowa
County, I know three who survived polio in
the 1950s and are suffering from “post-po-
lio syndrome” today.
On a bike-ride on the Imnaha Highway
on Sunday, I was struck by a long string
of yellow sacks of highway trash; I won-
dered if it is people who see individual free-
dom in pitching trash from car windows
who demand the freedom to not wear a
mask. I thanked the good volunteers of Wal-
lowa County who help keep our small, rural
place beautiful, the many who look out for
the few.
———
Rich Wandschneider is the director of
the Josephy Library of Western History and
Culture.
Benefits of peanut butter and celery
IT’S ABOUT
HEALTH AND
WELLNESS
Ann Bloom
W
hether you grew up eating
Skippy, Jif, or you are a loyal fan
of Peter Pan or some other brand,
peanut butter probably figures prominently
somewhere in your childhood. Peanut but-
ter and jelly sandwiches are as much a part
of growing up for many people as skinned
knees and the ABCs.
Peanut butter is, of course, made from
peanuts. Peanuts are not a nut, but a
legume. Legumes are part of a group of
food which also contains dried peas and
lentils. Peanuts grow underground and are
part of the protein food group.
To make peanut butter, peanuts are usu-
ally first roasted and then ground into a
paste with a little salt added. In many com-
mercial varieties, sometimes oils and sugar
or shortening are added. Peanut butter is
simple to make at home, too, so it is a great
at-home project to do with children. Natural
peanut butter will separate (the oil will float
to the top). This can be fixed by simply stir-
ring the oil back into the peanut butter until
it is a smooth paste again.
As a spread, peanut butter can be used
in various forms in recipes both sweet and
savory. Peanut butter cookies can be found,
in some version or another, in just about
any general cookbook. Peanut butter is
used to make dipping sauces, marinades
and soups. It is also found in international
cuisines.
Peanut butter has a lot going for it in
terms of nutrition. Although relatively high
in calories (about 190 per 2 tablespoon
serving) it is high in protein, vitamin E, B
vitamins, fiber, phosphorus, manganese
and magnesium. It is also contains copper
which helps maintain bone health. Accord-
ing to WebMd.com, it also contains a fat
called oleic acid which can help to maintain
HDL (the “good” cholesterol), blood pres-
sure and blood sugar. Maintaining healthy
levels of these may aid in helping to prevent
heart disease.
However, because it is high in fat (some
of which is saturated fat) and calories, a lit-
tle goes a long way, and consuming too
much peanut butter can result in weight
gain unless a person’s physical activity
level compensates for the additional calo-
ries. Therefore, as with most foods, peanut
butter should be consumed in moderation.
Due to the fat content (and protein) of
peanut butter it tends to give a sense of
fullness after it is eaten and is slow to be
digested, therefore it prevents a feeling of
hunger for a longer period of time and can
help prevent overeating and weight gain.
Peanut butter is not for everyone, how-
ever. Some people are highly allergic to it
and can go into anaphylactic shock from
eating even very small amounts. This reac-
tion causes swelling of the tongue and
throat and can cause hives. This is a medi-
cal, life-threatening emergency and requires
immediate medical attention.
Peanut butter as a snack has a lot of
options: peanut butter and apple slices, pea-
nut butter and crackers, peanut butter and
celery with raisins (also known as “ants on
a log”), peanut butter and celery with dried
cranberries (also known as “lady bugs on a
log”), etc.
And speaking of celery … April is
National Celery Month. When some people
think of celery they may think of its claim
to fame as a diet food. But there is much
more to celery than just its tiny amount of
calories (10 calories per stalk). It has anti-
oxidants which protect cells, blood vessels
and organs from oxidative damage. It con-
tains vitamins K, A and C, nutrients such
as folate and potassium, fiber and at 95%
water, it provides a source of hydration. It is
also low in sodium.
However you take your peanut butter
and celery, both can be part of a healthy and
nutritious diet. For more information and
recipes using both peanut butter and celery,
go to www.foodhero.org.
———
Ann Bloom lives in Enterprise and has
worked for the OSU Extension Service for
15 years as a nutrition educator. She stud-
ied journalism and education at Washington
State University.