NEW AND IMPROVED

This blog is now sugar FREE, fat FREE, gluten FREE, all ORGANIC and all NATURAL!!

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

TO JAB OR NOT TO JAB, THAT IS THE QUESTION

 

TO JAB OR NOT TO JAB, THAT IS THE QUESTION

                                                                                 


    

MANDATORY PRE-POST STATEMENT

Along with “Our thoughts and prayers”, “Thank you for your service”, and “Not that there is anything wrong with that”; I am required to state:

Covid-19 vaccines are safe, free, and readily available, I am fully vaccinated and recommend everyone to first check with their primary physician and if deemed appropriate get vaccinated.

OK, with that out of the way, I do of my own freewill believe that it is probably a good idea for most people to get vaccinated.  I am double vaxed and am getting a booster.

Having said that (which if you are reading, you know that I have in fact said that) getting the vaccination is not as easy as advertised.

I’m not saying it is difficult, but I just spent 45 minutes getting an appointment for a booster shot at my (almost) local pharmacy.

It was basically easy for me.  I have a computer.  I have a car for transportation.  I am only a partly 75-year-old cognitively declined individual.  I have a wife that can walk me through most of the appointment process.

Statistics say that 65% of the country is at least partially vaccinated and children under 12, about 15%, are not yet eligible.  So a pretty big percent of the eligible country is vaccinated. 

Who are not vaccinated?

 

1.    Some are just afraid of shots in general. 

2.    Some are against any vaccinations. 

3.    Some equate the jab with a political statement. 

4.    Many have had covid-19 and believe they have immunities equal to or better than the shot and that the shot on top of their natural immunity is not well tested and might even be dangerous.

Number one may seem silly, but it is difficult to argue.  There are people who will suffer a tooth ache rather than visit a dentist.

Number two is similarly phobic, but this is a new vaccine.

Number three is ridiculous, but it is what it is.

Number four, may have some validity, I would get the shot, but it still remains to this date a valid argument absent more data.

A number FIVE reason is possibly more common and seems unidentified. 

It is just not that easy for everyone to get an appointment and then get to the venue giving the shot.  Everyone does not have access to a computer, everyone does not have the acuity to ramble through the questions on the appointment applications (hell lots of people can’t read and or have trouble with eyesight).  For many people getting to the venue is very difficult.  Many people do not have a Mrs. Cranky to walk them through the process and are probably too embarrassed to ask for help.

My point is there is not much to be done for those with excuses 1 thru 3. 

You can offer public service messages out the Ying Yang, but will not change many opinions.  Those in the number four category may change their mind, but more needs to be explored before their fear can be categorically determined to be incorrect.  Regardless, arm twisting will only further increase the resistance of most in all categories.

If government wants to increase vaccination rates, they need to do more to reach out to people and communities which find it difficult to arrange for and show up for the shot.  Walk-in situations in local venues need to be increased.  Maybe even mobile units along with easily accessible volunteers to help people with the process.

Are mandatory vaccinations a good idea?  They do work with a multitude of vaccinations which are required to attend school.

The answer to that is simple. 

Mandatory vaccinations are a good idea if they work, as they do with the MMR vaccine for instance. If people simply need the shot to be mandatory to push them, then it is a good idea. 

However, if people are moved to bull their necks and refuse the shot for whatever reason, then mandatory rules will ultimately be counterproductive.

Just as telling a child that if they don’t eat their spinach they will get no desert often will swear a person off spinach for life;  making what is probably in a persons best interest mandatory, does not always get the desired result.

Government should encourage everyone to get vaccinated, give them the facts as best we know them, and make the process as easy as buying a cup of coffee. 

For everyone else who is vaccinated, mask up if it makes you feel safe, stay out of highly populated low ventilated places and you should be safe from the unvaccinated.

DISCLAIMER:

I am not a doctor, but I have been watching ER reruns for the last several months.

15 comments:

  1. Not sure what it will take Joeh. I live in an area where all I had to do was leave my name, age and number with some guy at a local drug store drive through window. I was called in a week and got both shots in a timely manner. They even sent me a birthday card months later. Even this easy, my area has a low vaccination rate due to political leanings. So still masking and social distancing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Joeh, Well-written and spot on. You've done some good here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Around here, you can just drive through Walgreens, or walk into other pharmacies, and they'll shoot you. From what I've heard and read in the local paper. I assume they will fill out the info for you, if you can't do it online, like The Pony did before he got his first shot.

    Might I suggest a #6, for people who have a condition which makes taking the shot more risky than catching the virus? Having spent three days in the hospital in 2014, after a one-hour ambulance ride, with multiple bilateral pulmonary embolisms, for which no doctor or specialist could find a cause... I do not wish to have a shot that COULD give me blood clots. That side effect might be extremely rare for the average person, but I don't feel like risking it. So I'll have to disagree on the mandatory-ness.

    I LOVE ER RERUNS! I appreciate a good villain, like Dr. Romano, and Dr. Weaver.

    ReplyDelete
  4. First two shots were a nightmare to get. The booster - not so much. Walked into Walgreens to see about an appointment. Doctor said how about right now. Worked for us. Done and done. Oh and done. I mask up when I shop but I'm not going to get into any discussion with anybody about yes or no.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I made my appointment online, it was easy enough, then when I had the vaccination, I made the appointment right then while I was at the clinic for the second dose. I'll get the booster when it is available. We have walk-ins and mobile units here now. People lined up for miles to get vaccinated just so they could get a free sausage sizzle at the same time. That's a barbecued sausage on bread with onions and tomato sauce.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Forgot to say the mobile units are going around to businesses and places like nursing homes and schools where staff are unable to take time off to get the shot. At the schools, children over 16 are allowed to get the shot without parental permission if the want it but their parents are antivaxxers or something.

    ReplyDelete
  7. If it's so great the VAERS graph wouldn't be vertical.
    No
    No
    Not me
    Besides, my wife had it.She Has the antibodies. Don't need a fourth or fifth booster jab. So I sleep in the same bed. Never felt a thing. I've never had the flu or a flu shot. I'm just gonna rely on the immune system God gave me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I expect there are people with natural immunities. I had the flu when in my 20's 105 fever, came close to push up daisies. Have not had flu since. Immune? Maybe...stay out of crowded unventilated areas.

      Delete
  8. I'm a solid #4 - Had the virus, got the antibodies. It's not fear that keeps me from getting vaxxed, it's that I just don't see the point. All along, we've been told, "Follow the science," but natural immunity has been virtually ignored in public discourse. For the powers-that-be to count me among The Unvaccinated is insulting, frankly, and feels like I'm being manipulated.

    Also, your comment on #2 deserves more attention - it is a new vaccine, and for every PSA telling me it's absolutely safe, I have a horror story from someone I know who had a horrific reaction to it. . .

    ReplyDelete
  9. WELL, I was fine about the vaccine in the beginning and have my 2 shots and will be getting a booster but I have lost all trust. The governments marketing was bad.

    After years of hearing about how good "natural this" and "natural that." in practically everything for our bodies and the environment now "they" want to turn it around and have us believe that something made by humans in a lab is better than our own natural God given immunities.

    So I don't buy it and it's my prerogative not to. I haven't had it - so I got the vaccine which to me is inferior to the natural immunity or else why are people who have been fully vaccinated, getting it?

    I'm sick of the whole covid crap - Like I said, poor marketing from the get go plus how can they convince people to wear masks, get vaccinated and believe them every step of the way, when they themselves are maskless and doing the complete opposite of what they want us pheasants to do.

    I think the whole thing has become ridiculous and I am totally against mandating it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. A well-thought-out discourse.

    There are also people like a relative of mine who has liver disease. He is waiting for a study, which will be published this December, to let him know if it's safe for people with his form of liver disease to take the shots. If it is, he'll take it. If not, he will continue to rely on distance and masking and handwashing to keep him safe.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The anti-vaxxers worry me. I fear that someday their ilk may come to power and begin making the rules. Horrors!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yeah, horrors! You want the shot? Get it! That is how those EEEEVILL people are.
    No mandate, take it if you want it..
    Terrifying the tyranny of freedom..

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm waiting for the booster here. I never used to get the regular flu shot until the hospital I worked at made it mandatory. Hmmm...where were all the protests about that? Oh well, just get the danged shot for goodness sakes.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I got the two. I will not get a booster. I was told two would do it. That was - whether intentional or not - a lie. I feel the government has been less than forthcoming in some regards and less than accurate in others. Follow the science? The science has changed several times already. No thanks. I'll wait.

    ReplyDelete