Hello Reader,
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The first.

When my Provincial government announced this past April that my age group, GenX, could get vaccinated, we showed up. As a cohort, we came out in force, and caused a social media storm in the doing so...#GenXZeneca

We waited in virtual waiting rooms for hours, pestered pharmacists, called doctor’s offices….and sometimes lined up for hours in chilly weather.

But there was a catch. Unless we, GenX, were Frontline Healthcare Workers, managed a range of other pre-identified health challenges, or identified as Indigenous, Métis or were battling homelessness, the vaccine that was on offer was the embattled and ensnarled Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

This sparked discussions about “good vaccines” and “not-so-good” vaccines.

For me, the decision to get the jab, even if it wasn’t presented as the numero-uno choice, was easy.
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Given all the news reports of various countries at first pausing, then cancelling, and then wondering if they had done the right thing of offering the AZ vaccine, given the (very small) chance of having a VITT reaction (Vaccine-Induced Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia). The Science Table advising my government in Ontario has assigned a shifting risk ratio to this. At one point it was 1 in a million, then 1 in 100,000 and in places it was reported as low as 1 in 55,000.

Even as many European Nations cancelled their AZ vaccine plans, and then the US, I comforted myself with the knowledge that the UK has primarily relied on this vaccine, and has successfully administered to (at the time of writing) at least 38 million people, which represents almost 70% of the adult population.

Within the course of five months, the AZ vaccine has helped to curb the outbreak of the B.1.1.7 Variant of Concern which seems to have first surfaced in the UK. The same one that brought my healthcare system to its knees this spring.

All of these numbers started to induce vaccine hesitancy, generally, but for not for me. Living with mid-to-high range anxiety about contracting Covid over this last year, I felt that taking the chance to get a vaccine was better than the risk of waiting. My lungs, they aren't perfect as-they-go. I can't imagine Covid would be a welcomed guest.

I feel very lucky to have access to this vaccine, and being (so far partially) immune is life-changing. When my teenage kids got their first Pfizer vaccines last week, I realized that they were in the first hundred-thousand-or-so teens to be vaccinated--in the world.

I love science, and believe in its power.

The second.

We could be doing anything on the ship, deep in a difficult and belaboured conversation, but if someone spotted a fluke on the horizon, we were gone.

WHALES!!

Someone would shout, and a room would clear.

A frantic scramble for cameras, jackets (it's really, quite cold in Antarctica)...and for me, making sure that I had my recording equipment in hand and cued up.

One of these days, I ran outside, and with the luck of timing, managed to capture a moment with a humpback whale that I'll never forget. Oli Sansom caught this legendary moment on photo:

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This 👆humpback whale popped its head out of the water, and our eyes met...me leaning over the bow of the ship with my microphone, she wondering what I was doing (good thing I didn't drop the microphone in the water....see that strap dangling ?! 🤦‍♀)️

Then that sound. The deep, deep base, of this gorgeous whale greeting me.

It's a sound that has gone into my bones and hasn't come out.

​Nina Earl was there explain the term, "spyhopping," with Mary-Anne Lea and Ana Chang there to offer some insights too.

Come hang with us on the deck of the ship for just one moment....

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Sending audio love to you,

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