For all you do, this jab’s for you

If 2020 was the Year of The Virus, then 2021 will be the Year of The Jab.

Or The Double Jab. Like most of us, I don’t exactly enjoy being pierced by a sharp object. But I’ve always managed to accept a needle as an alternative to, say, having my teeth drilled without freezing.

I’ve also found pain-numbing needles particularly useful when trying to do things like get a baby out.

But in 2021, I’ll be taking my jab “for the team.”

The team means a lot of things right now. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t doing it for Team Gail. I don’t want to get COVID, and if a jab helps me avoid it, then I’m in.

But I’m also going to do it to protect others — the near and dear who are more vulnerable than I might be, and for people I don’t know at the grocery store, in police and fire services or the post office who can’t work from home.

I want the jab to help the brave people who are working on the front lines of COVID in hospitals, in ambulances and in doctors’ offices.

I’ll take it for the people who have lost jobs and for those who are working at home, trying to juggle children with work under the same roof. I want the needle to help businesses that have been shut down by the virus and for those that are struggling and seriously wounded.

I’ll take it to rid our vocabulary of words like “quarantine,” “lockdown,” “social distancing” and “unprecedented.” And I’ll get it to banish the mask and welcome back the hug.

And I’ll get the jab to bring back words like “normal,” “party” and “hope.” Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get to use the word “travel” again because of that jab.

Heck, I’ll even take the jab for Premier Stephen Mcneil who has been working with Dr. Robert Strang and the Public Health people to keep us safe.

Whatever the reasons, it will be my choice.

I recognize that it is a lot to ask people to have themselves pierced with a sharp object and injected with a new serum that has been developed and approved at lightning speed.

Not everyone will be comfortable with this. Some people won’t like the idea of someone pressuring them to do this.

Rights of refusal will be asserted. Some will fear that this is a conspiracy by big pharmaceutical corporations to boost their own profits, by the state to impose control over our lives or by Bill Gates to advance his agenda — whatever they think that might be.

Whatever their reasons, there will be pushback.

We’ve had a taste of this with the anti-vaxxing movement whose advocates refuse to have children vaccinated for diseases like the measles.

Its leaders like Andrew Wakefield — who published a paper linking the MMR vaccine to autism, which was later shown to be a fraud — use the internet to promote fear and mistrust of vaccinations.

This has resulted in the return of the measles, a disease that can seriously harm and kill children.

There have already been stories about people who have experienced bad reactions to the COVID vaccine. There will be more stories and fake news about immune-boosting alternatives to the vaccine.

People will exercise their choice not to take the risk of getting the vaccine, not realizing or caring that failure to get inoculated may pose greater hazards to themselves and their communities.

Making the jab mandatory is an unlikely prospect. Democratic governments would not want to be seen to be kicking in doors, dragging people out of their homes and forcing them to take a needle.

But forms of pressure will be exerted. Certain companies like airlines will limit their own liabilities by demanding proof of vaccination before allowing passengers to board planes.

The hesitation, fear and refusal will be the next challenge in our COVID journey.