Getting The Needle

Hello, dear readers!

I’m going to keep this one short and sweet.

This is due to the fact that, as I type, my head has started to pound harder than a kettle drum being dropped down the stairs of the Empire State Building. Add in the growing achiness, the lack of energy, and the feeling that someone has tied an elastic band around my sinuses and, well, you get the picture.

And no, before you jump to any conclusions, I’m not unwell. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Doctors & Nurses
Yesterday saw myself and my ever-wonderful wife, Tina, take a trip to our local doctors. This is not something all that unusual at the moment due to Tina’s current health problems that I outlined in this post. The unusual thing was that this time it wasn’t just Tina the nurse anted to see. This time it was both of us.

As you might have worked out, the reason for our visit was one of prevention rather than cure. As I said, I’m in rude health (well, as rude as someone with MS can be. Slightly cheeky health perhaps?) and Tina has reached the point where the nurse is no longer taking enough blood to feed an extended family of vampires, or any samples of other stuff either.

No, the reason for our joint visit was to get our flu jabs.

Mild?
COVID-19 may have stolen all the headlines this year, but influenza is still a very real, and potentially deadly, threat. It might not be getting top billing, It might be skulking around backstage trying to feed off the reflected glory of the main act and maybe infect a groupie or two, but it is still there.

With the increasingly inclement weather, and the strain out beloved NHS is under right now, it would seem churlish in the extreme to forgo the additional support to the immune system we can get from the local surgery, especially as my immune system is officially suppressed by my condition to the point it’s probably held together by good wishes and sticky-backed plastic. Getting the jab was definitely a good idea. One I’m paying for a little now.

We were warned to be fair. The nurse, who even though masked still looked far too young to be a nurse (why yes, I am getting on a bit. Thanks for asking) said as much. “You may experience mild flu-like symptoms that might last for twenty-four hours or so.” She said, and by Jimminy she was right.

Roll Your Sleeves Up
The symptoms I mentioned began shortly after leaving the surgery and have continued up until, well, now. It’s meant a day of impatient indolence. A day where doing nothing is taking a lot out of me. I say a day, and I hope that’s all it is because I don’t fancy feeling this way tomorrow.

It’s a small price to pay, when you think about it, The mild discomfort caused by injecting a small and modified dose of the virus will help stop a case o the real thing later down the line. It will inform my body what to look out for, so the rag-tag band of antibodies roaming around my system can attack on sight. It gives me peace of mind that in the case of influenza in particular, I can rest that little bit easier.

All of which makes me wonder about the people who are so militantly opposed to taking one of the vaccines for COVID-19. For me the fact that a preventative measure which, given enough coverage in the population, could eradicate the virus, has arrived is wonderful. I know it will be issued in order of vulnerability, so I won’t be taking it for a while yet. When the time comes though, I will be there with rolled-up sleeve being a big brave boy and taking my medicine.

Immune To Criticism
I know there are scare stories circulating. I know that two people with severe allergies (the type you need an epi-pen for) have suffered allergic reactions. I realise the anti-vax movement has migrated (much like a virus, ironically) to this new treatment, but this vaccine works differently to the one I’ve just had. It doesn’t give carry any of the virus but uses other means to re-train those clever little antibodies. I can’t see it as an effort to inject us with nanobots to tack and control us either. Not when we willingly carry tracking devices around with us on a daily basis, while we line up to comply with what the adverts say we should aspire to.

No, I see no reason for the government, the new world order, big pharma, or any other body to not want a safe, working vaccine to be widely taken up and a healthy, mobile population to carry on buying stuff. I’m possibly as distrustful of the current U.K. government as anyone, but I fully believe that is their aim. To have a healthy population to fuel the almighty, all important economy. It’s what the Tories do.

Of course I could be wrong. The vaccine could be unsafe. It could be poisonous It could be a conspiracy to turn us all into slaves for the lizard people. I see little evidence for this, however, and a lot for the dangers of actually getting COVID. I think, for the first time in what feels like a long time, the vaccine is a cause for optimism. A chink of light in the dark clouds that have hovered over us for so long. With luck, and a good take up, we could be looking forward to a more normal social Christmas this time next year, and that cannot come soon enough.

Until next time…