I’m Vaxed
When our first daughter was born, she was this amazing pure human. And then, over the course of the next two years, she was vaccinated from pandemic-type threatening viruses. Basically bad shit. Things you do not want your child to get.
The whole thing fascinated me. It was a brilliant learning experience in the medical industry. How far we have evolved so that people did not get polio, influenza, hepatitis, or Diptheria. Phew!
On Monday, I got the booster, the second shot of Pfizer. I have this feeling in my gut which is I am safe. Not totally safe, but free from probably having this thing kill me. That is definitely comforting.
Seeing people, in masks, in an extremely efficient line at Jacob Javits Center, all patiently awaiting their shot, did make me pause and think, damn, this is quite strange that the Government is taking care of us pretty damn efficiently. It took time, but we are here. Soon we will all be vaccinated, and what a relief.
Where do we go from here? Certainly, the anti-vaxers are screwed and should be. After 9/11, flying commercial became an entirely different experience. Security and the TSA have become normal. We will now all need some type of passport. Kids will have to show they are up to date on their vaccinations if they want to get in school. We will have to show that we have been vaccinated to go to a restaurant, a movie theater, a basketball game, and certainly traveling to another country. I am ok with this.
The other thing is we are turning down a left path. The majority of the people believe the Government, yes, that organization we pay taxes to because we are all part of the human race, is doing a pretty good job distributing the vaccinations at no cost to us. Look at Europe. They are still shutting down countries, and there are curfews. It doesn’t take much to see what a good job we are doing based on other countries.
This is not a political moment but a human rights moment. Those who are far-right and refuse to take the vaccine will have serious restrains on their everyday life when we return to the new normal.
The disruption over the past year has forced us to take a good look at ourselves and our history. Remember where our forefathers came from, England. Eventually, we will take better care of our citizens and create a more equitable world where Government has an important role from vaccinations to taxation to housing to transportation to infrastructure.
Otherwise, we will all end up in a world that looks and feels like the Octavia Butler book, Parable of the Sower. It is not pretty, but weirdly the book feels like if we don’t change our ways, things could get quite grim.