Woo-hoo! Vaccine-Shaming Works. Off To Get My Vaccine Tomorrow!

Hi-fives everyone! I’ve finally been vaccine-shamed. I’m due to get my first shot of the Moderna vaccine tomorrow at my local Rite-Aid.

Yep. Right along with all the 12-year olds who are now the last group approved to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.

Let me say, I am not looking forward to it at all. For a start, I have a horror of needles. So, I’ve been on the fence about this FDA-approved-but-only-under-emergency-use vaccine ever since it became widely available to my Palm Beach friends and husband. They all received their vaccinations back in March. And, have been on my case ever since.

I’ve held out till now. Gone about my business; it was easy in Florida. Almost everything can be done outdoors: I played tennis outdoors; ate outdoors; read outdoors. I also grocery-shopped and took a couple of commercial flights (all masked up.)

But I resisted the jab. Not just because I hate needles and not because I am an anti-vaxxer. Not at all.

What Doesn’t Kill You…

The fact that I never got any of the regular childhood vaccines is because they weren’t available back when I was a child in London. So, I suffered through the actual illnesses of measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough and scarlet fever. And, to some extent, I’ve believed in that cliche that what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

Not An Anti-Vaxxer

But, anyone who knows me, knows that my current antipathy to the jab has nothing to do with mistrusting this particular vaccine. It’s because I am, in general, anti the medical ethos in this country. To me the profit motive has reared its ugly head in most medical transactions I’ve had — which admittedly and mercifully have been very few. It’s a view that’s shared by at least one fellow Brit — and she happens to share it in todays Guardian newspaper.

Five years ago, for example, I blogged about my distrust of annual mammograms — especially after one of my doctors suggested I endure one because his practice had just invested in a new mammogram machine! I haven’t been back for an annual physical checkup since.

Then, came the revelations about Big Pharma, specifically Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, duping doctors into believing that oxycontin and oxycodone were not addictive. I blogged about this, too:  How on the backs of gullible –and greedy– doctors, Purdue Pharma built a multi-billion dollar industry which snuffed out hundreds of thousands of young lives.

The Covid-19 Vaccine

Which brings me back to the Covid-19 vaccinations. Do I believe everything positive that’s being said about the vaccine? Yes. Maybe. Although what’s more interesting perhaps is what’s not being said:

There’s a section on the CDC.gov website that’s titled  What We Are Still Learning. In other words, what we don’t know. Turns out no-one in the scientific/medical establishment really knows what kind of immunity you get from the vaccine, or how long will it last?  Will you need a booster shot some time down the road? Do the current vaccines protect against Covid-19 variants?  What are the possible long-term side effects of the vaccine?

The CDC also still doesn’t really know why some vaccine recipients get Covid-19 despite the vaccination although those numbers are not huge. As of the latest stats, out of 101 million fully vaccinated adults in the U.S., 10,262 reported a vaccine breakthrough infection.

But The Vaccine Was Not Created Overnight

Still, the really positive information, I think, is that this vaccine was not, contrary to general belief, created overnight. The mRNA technology on which the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are based has apparently been in the making for some forty years.

I only discovered this during a recent MSNBC-TV interview with Katalin Kariko, 66, a Hungarian-born scientist who with her colleagues has been working on mRNA technology for decades. In a fascinating NYT article, her contribution to the vaccine is nicely detailed. Specifically, how almost 20 years ago, Katalin and her colleagues made a scientific breakthrough in mRNA technology which led to the current vaccine development.

So, I have been heartened by these revelations. And, the fact that no-one in this country is being charged a nickel for the vaccination — although, of course, insurance companies and Medicare and Medicaid will be charged back somewhere along the line, no doubt.

What’s It Really Going To Mean For Me?

I have no real desire to go out into public places without my mask. I’m quite happy to keep wearing it for a while yet. It’s worked for me all this time. I’m a little reluctant to give it up now.

Nor do I have any desire to attend sporting events or concerts or any other event at which crowds gather. Because, you know, even if you’re not going to catch Covid, there’s always the danger that some deranged person armed with an automatic assault weapon and his/her Second Amendment right, will gun you down — as happened again, just this weekend in Miami.

Upsides, anyone?

However, I do not want be treated like a leper by all my dearest (vaccinated) friends and family. More importantly, there’s that herd immunity thing. As more of us get vaccinated, the spread of this ferocious virus seems to be slowing. Consider anyway these findings of a Washington Post survey: in states where vaccinations are the fewest, Covid-19 is still raging, unabated.

Happy Memorial Day To All