The pandemic has been in our lives for more than two years, and by now, it has been bugging us for too long. Personally, I wanted to get vaccinated because it’s important for me, and I also wanted to get a covid-pass to travel across Europe. So in this post, I’ll share with you some details on how it went.
In Sweden, where vaccination has always been recommended but voluntary, the numbers are pretty impressive: the country has administered at least 19,837,847 doses of COVID vaccines so far, and the numbers are going up. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated more than 96% of the country’s population!
During last year and the beginning of 2022, KTH organised several drop-in vaccination days on campus for all comers, so following the ABBA’s song advice, I decided to take a chance on that.
This was not my first experience with Covid vaccination: last year, I already received my full course of Sputnik back in Russia. However, because Sputnik is unfortunately not recognised in the EU yet, I needed an approved vaccine to receive a pass to travel freely.
When I got to the place, it was quite crowded with many people in line, but everybody followed the social distancing rules and wore masks. The medical staff was extremely friendly and carefully listened to my story of already being fully vaccinated with Sputnik. After some consideration, as this was clearly not the most common case for them, they told me they believed it would be fine. Still, the final decision was surely up to me. The medical staff also explained what to expect after the vaccination and where to call if I felt any side effects. So early December, I had my first shot of Pfizer and the second one in January.
After both doses, I had some side effects for a couple of days, mainly fever and pain in the muscles, but after a few days, I fully recovered. To retrieve my digital covid-pass, I went to covidbevis.se, and it was super easy, just in a few seconds.
So now it’s time to think of destinations for the mid-term break and Easter holidays! Feel free to share with me your advice on top places to visit this Spring in the comments below 🙂
// Valerie