A JAB OR A PAIN IN THE …..

It has been about one and a half years since the covid 19 pandemic became the talk of the town at large and the concern of many if not all governments and people in authority or health conscious.

I am neither but also became worried when on the news and everywhere the only information given was the number of cases hospitalized, the number of people dead or dying and the fact that no solution had been found, not even a clear view of the little thing causing such a havoc.  It is almost incredible that a little virus can make us ill, can even kill us and can also leave in our bodies consequences that are unforeseeable and difficult to deal with.

Many people all over the world have suffered of this, many have died and many have been lucky enough not to fall for it.  All governments, people, associations, groups and the like were crying for a cure but it took a while to come.  A cure for a problem that is not clearly known is really hard to find.  Medical teams of all sorts were trying to see how to tame the shrewd covid 19 but it has been hard to evaluate and learn how it works and even harder how to make it less lethal. 

After only few months of what I guess was trial and error by the medical teams, they finally came out with a vaccine but although the whole world was asking for it, loudly and without any restrain, when it finally was there then voices were raised also very loudly to tell us all that it could not work, it had come too soon, that probably was more harmful than beneficial.  How come for all other vaccines known to us up to now, it had taken years and years of essay and trials to get one that worked. 

On one side the world was asking, praying and demanding a vaccine and on the other the same world was refusing to believe the vaccine could work.  To be or not to be a believer in the wonders of science/magic/chemistry.  At the beginning of the vaccine dilemma many were the voices in authority that claimed it was just as well to drinking a good shot of bleach or scrubbing your lungs with strong soap and hot water.  The so called remedies were poured out to the unsuspecting public through many channels, some more believable than others but most of them found followers that of course when following the new miracle cure realized that the miracle was not to be dead on the spot.  

Others, the good guys so to speak, were offering somehow tamer solutions like wash your hands every 60 seconds, keep your distance, do wear a face mask – medically certified if possible, and do not mix with others, keep isolated, do all your shopping on line, and pay by credit cards so you do not have to touch any other person, except of course the poor mailman, or the delivery persons that were to take your purchases to your home and if they were lucky were wearing mask themselves, kept away from you and did not touch you or your stuff – other that the money you may tip them with, since we all know money has no smell and probably does not transmit any covid 19 viruses! 

After reading a lot of the offered solutions, it was really difficult to choose which were good, plausible, realistic or feasible and which were hoaxes of monumental proportions.  

All of a sudden the vaccination seems to be only one of the alternatives, although many governments were totally for it, but on a voluntary basis.  Nothing compulsory like the vaccines when a baby is born, when there are zero alternatives as a baby gets the vaccines and that is that and just a comment for those anti vaccine because they “do not want foreign bodies in their own”, think about the fact the maybe if you had not been vaccinated as a newly born, you might not be there to be a pain in the …..  

To my knowledge, limited as it is, all countries are offering the vaccine on a voluntary basis and free of charge, gratis.  In itself the fact that it is gratis is a miracle.  When have you seen a government offering something gratis to the entire and total conglomerate of its population? 

All this is fine but at the beginning, they were setting rules for the vaccination that were of course risk-dependent and as the riskier group of population were the not too young, not to say the oldies, all others were left pending and maybe even wanting to get ahead in the queue.  I heard of some cases where younger people paid to get ahead of the line, or cheated in any other way but for the most part everyone waited its turn.  And then …..  all those that wanted to, got vaccinated and those that did not want to kept complaining with different reasons, from it is my body, I do what I want with it, I do not want foreign bodies in it – as if eating or having sex kept the foreign bodies outside or you cannot force me it is against my human rights – in this case their human rights should have a limit where they crash with mine, for instance.  Also I heard I am not sure it works, let us see if it really stops the virus and then maybe….   The reasons/excuses are multiple and one is sillier than the next or the one before but that is humanity.

Regarding the fact that the vaccine is gratis for us, the people of the world, does not make it free of cost.  It has a cost that can be known, guessed or disregarded, as long as we don’t have to pay it.  But pay someone has to and in this case it is the governments that pay the various producers of the vaccine all for the benefit of our good health.  But what has happened is that the rich can and have ordered vaccines by the millions, to be able to vaccinate all their populations and more, having some extra for the “just in case” and then the poor countries that need it as much if not more than the former ones, well, they do not have the funds to pay for the millions.  It just happens that their population is also more numerous and with health problems that cannot always be taken care of but no money no vaccine, and this at a governmental level.  

Then someone at the WHO or thereabouts had the brilliant idea of creating some kind of general fund for vaccines for the less well endowed countries to which all would contribute either buying extra vaccines for the fund or offering their surpluses so that those that do not have, can have.  The idea is great but all of a sudden many of those with surpluses found out that they did not have enough just in case they needed to vaccinate the whole population, which is a fact that will never happen or if the dogs and cats needed vaccines.   At the time of the creation of the fund the prevailing idea was that children and adolescents did not need to get vaccinated as the rate of transmission of the disease at that age was very low.  But when it came to give away the vaccines to other groups of people, coincidentally all of a sudden brilliant minds considered that it might not be such a bad idea to vaccinate also our kids, our meaning the kids of the countries that already had enough vaccines for the adult population.  The fund is working but at a much slower rate than it should and many countries are lacking the resources not only for vaccines but oxygen, protection for the caregivers and even food. 

Today or these days many countries are having a problem that I believe was not even phantom a year ago.  Many people are refusing to get vaccinated arguing so many reasons, valid and less that it would be very long to enumerate them.  And it is not only the young but also many caregivers that have lived through the crisis a year ago, that have seen their friends, colleagues and families die and still refuse to take the minimum precaution to protect not only themselves but those that are around them.  In my opinion it is an extreme selfishness that makes them think only of themselves and not those around them.  

In some countries the government has decided to make vaccination compulsory for certain activities such as going to dance in a discotheque, be a nurse in a hospital or home or go for a drink in a pub.  Of course the wave of protests has been proportional I would say to the stupidity of those refusing the vaccine, but maybe stupidity is not the right word, you can choose your own.  I just read that someone might suggest to pay the recalcitrant antivaccine so they get the vaccine, but that would be totally discriminatory against all of us that have been vaccinated, believing at 100% or at a much lesser rate on the efficacy of the jabs. 

The story of course has not ended and probably will not end soon, so this blog may be continued as my mood dictates and your comments are most welcome.  I have not intended to offend anyone but to offer a light view of my opinion on the matter today.  Maybe another day I would have written something different but such is the life of a text.  

Take care of you and your families and friends and pets and of the world as a whole as this is the only world we have, so far and until colonization of other planets becomes a reality.