I was wondering the other day why I seem to have so little patience with anti-vaxxers who have lately reached the heights of absurdity, in as much as people have been claiming it makes them magnetic or bluetooth enabled.
(Please God, make me bluetooth enabled so when J and I are in the car I can just think my “yes dear” and “no dear” replies to her various political rants and have the car stereo articulate my reply...usually once every five kilometers on the highway.)
There being no ceiling in the Toyota so it is harder for me to escape these diatribes when we are in the car, plus the fact we have not been travelling much due to the little outbreak we all suffered in Taipei and New Taipei City. So just lately the issue has not been so acute.
So I counted them. These do not include the dozens I had when I was a young child growing up in the UK but since my move to Asia in 1997. I have had a total of 24 vaccines from the time I left the UK for Asia in the mid-1990s through my trips back and forth to India and China, plus one Yellow Fever we needed to go and teach a Hostile Environment Awareness Course for journalists in Africa for Xinhua. Of course, most recently, the Covid shot.
Joyce, of course, has had a similar number having traipsed all over Asia with me and my job.
I remember well the visit to the Inoculation Centre in Sydney, prior to our departure for Bombay.
We dutifully arrived at the centre in Bligh Street Sydney and were shown into a well turned out modern office with a tiny and fragile looking Indian lady doctor behind a huge desk.
She peered at us over the top of half-moon spectacles and cheerfully asked if the notes she had were correct and we were heading for India. We said yes.
She chirruped and tilted her head like a curious bird and told us how she was born and spent the first few years of her life in Bombay and how she envied us and how she would love to return to see the place.
She picked up a small book… this is how the conversation went…
Dr - OK, how long for, is this just a holiday or a business trip, or something longer? she said, opening the slim edition.
Me - Three to five years.
She put down the book and dragged, across a larger edition which she opened.
Dr - Right, will you be staying only in Bombay?
Me - No, we will both be travelling throughout India.
She closed that book and dragged across another and opened it.
Dr - Only staying in India?
Me - No, I’ll be travelling to Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and possibly anywhere else in South Asia.
She looked me in the eye…
Dr - In rural areas too?
Me - Oh yes, very possibly, all of those.
She smiled, tilted her bird-like head the other way, snapped the large book shut and declared.
“I’ll give you the lot...just be on the safe side.”
So poor Mrs Smith had to endure all the shots. From memory we had two or three visits to complete all the shots we needed which in total was 17 separate vaccines for our trip to India. Some, like the Covid shots, were twinned to complete the first course.
Did we ever think we were in any danger, not for a moment. Did we think it was not the sensible thing to do, not for a moment. Did we trust the doctors and the science, of course.
(Speaking of which, my brother is a medical physicist/scientist and while I’d not trust him to walk my dog….I do trust his science.)
I’m still surprised that vaccine juice is not leaking out of my ears after all this time given how much has been injected into me over the past 25 years. Not to mention what was stabbed into me as a child in the UK.
As the old English proverb says. “Diseases come on horseback, but steal away on foot.” Getting as many people vaccinated is the only way to beat Covid, and it will take more time.
This is just one small reason I have no time for anti-vaxxers.
Tinkerty Tonk...
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