Vaccine booster jabs? Bring them on!

SO, once more we’ve been called on to roll up our sleeves, this time to have our Covid booster jabs. Yet there are millions of people who have so far refused a single vaccine dose. I’m truly bewildered.

I’ve had countless vaccinations since I was born. As far as I know, they’ve done me no harm. I’ve yet to become either radioactive or magnetic, be trackable by the authorities or subject to mind control – although I acknowledge that the latter would be difficult to disprove.

I should come clean here. My absolute enthusiasm for a vaccine against Covid-19 doesn’t come from nowhere. In February 2020, thanks to what I lightly term my “slightly dodgy kidneys”, I was one of several million people told that, thanks to pre-existing health conditions, they were “clinically vulnerable” to the coronavirus. Along with those of our oldest generations, it was likely that if the virus took hold, then we would be quarantined.

It was quite a shock to find that my chronic kidney disease which, although I take it very seriously, had not been something I considered a “vulnerability”, was indeed so.

I doubt that the idea of being clinically vulnerable sits well with anyone, particularly when the dayto-day effects of your condition are minimal. I’ve never been a fan of labels, particularly those that draw attention to my weaknesses.

As it happened, things moved quickly. In March the entire country was put into lockdown, which made me feel safer. And there were mitigations. It turns out that, once a vaccine is available, being declared clinically vulnerable catapults you up the priority list.

Five minutes after I received the text inviting me, I was booked in. I’ve got my booster sorted just as quickly. As did most of us. The UK has one of the world’s best vaccine uptakes. The ratio of those keen to be vaccinated to those refusing is greatly in favour of the former.

I understand vaccine hesitancy. It’s only natural. But the anti-vaxx movement is something else entirely. And it’s been around ever since Edward Jenner created the first smallpox vaccine in the late 18th century.

It’s been my experience that for every social media post in favour of Covid jabs, up pop several warnings against them. Usually with outrageous misinformation, nonscience, and falsehoods to back them up, and quite often accompanied by conspiracy theories and unrestrained venom.

Anti-vaxxers use a number of tactics: play down the disease – “for most of us, it’s just like having a bad cold”; play up the risks of the vaccine – “blood clots”; appeal to the rebels – “it infringes our human rights”; and, of course, the claim that there’s a huge conspiracy – “the government wants to change our DNA.”

One question I’d like to ask those who suggest that vaccines are a way to control the population: why would a government wish to control the minds of those who already follow their suggestions, while leaving those who question them unaltered?

By comparison to Jenner’s day, 21st-century vaccines are very low risk. They are produced in carefully controlled laboratories, are subjected to rigorous trials and tests, and administered in hygienic clinical settings. Modern vaccines are safer but modern anti-vaxxers are more dangerous. They have access to the internet and largely unregulated social media. It’s a free-for-all out there. I respect anyone’s right to free speech, provided it is truthful and does no harm to the physical or mental safety of others, but I’m not minded to allow the anti-vaxxers to police my choices.

Some object on the more realistic grounds that, once this raft of boosters is administrated, in six months, or 12 months, there will be another. That there will always be another. That we may be doing this every year for ever more. Perhaps we will.

Experts in virology, immunology and public health can’t yet be certain because it’s a new, and everchanging, virus. I’ve no issue with that. The flu jab is annual.

If, and when, the medical statistics tell me it’s necessary, or advisable, to get a top-up jab, I’ll happily roll up my sleeve. Given that there is no medical reason for me not to have one, why wouldn’t I accept a scientifically proven vaccination against a highly infectious, very dangerous virus such as Covid-19? As for its boosters? Bring them on... I’m looking forward to mine.