THIS VACCINE IS A FREAKING SCREAM

 Got my booster.

That was the easy part. The hard part was that I forgot kids are also getting the shot. I was in line with screaming children. Screaming. SCREAMING. In CVS.  Screaming bloody frikkin murder BEFORE they got the vaccine.

I am not certain that children under the age of 12 should be receiving the vaccine in public. It was horrifying. Bloodcurdlingly horrifying. 

And the parents. Holy crap, the parents. I am surprised the poor tech giving the shots hadn't stabbed himself in his own eyeballs by the time I left the pharmacy. One mom actually told her kid, "Oh, don't worry, sweetie. You don't have to do this today. We can come back another time..." 

What? What the ... WHAT?!?!

By all means, traumatize the kid further by making the kid have anxiety for another week or two. For chrissakes, roll up the kid's sleeve and say, "Shut up and stop this idiocy. You're embarrassing yourself and disturbing EVERYONE in the store. You think they all want to listen to YOU?"

I may be the meanest person in the world, but if your kid is going to screech like you're carving off a limb without medication over the painless Covid shot, by all means, take your kid to the PEDIATRICIAN.

Understand this: I am NOT blaming the kids. I screamed bloody murder at a very young age over the (live vaccine) measles shot until the doc told me he had already given it to me. Of course, then I got the measles and almost died, but that's another trust issue entirely. 

I just don't think it's sane to have everyone in the store, not to mention everyone in the vaccine line with people of any age, listen to anyone, especially a child, basically being terrorized by a stranger with a needle out in public.

By the way, I talked to the little girl in line behind me. That screaming child in front of us scared the living shit out of that poor girl, so I talked her through it and made sure she heard me when it was my turn. "Is that it? All done? I didn't even feel it." I even managed to convince the screamer to get back in line by making sure she heard me, too, and she only screamed a little at the second try -- but, by God, she got the damn shot.

After, while we compared bandaids, I did have one complaint. All the kids got stickers and lollipops. I didn't get any candy. When it was my time to leave after the fifteen-minute waiting period, I said goodbye to my new not-screaming friends. As I turned the corner, one of the girls said, "And SHE didn't even get a LOLLIPOP!"

I guess I should've screamed. Oh, well. Next time. I'm sure there will probably be another booster, right?