Sunderland Echo

Vaccinatio­n day set to reveal whether it’s cure or conga

- RICHARD ORD E-mail richard.ord@ jpimedia.co.uk

Heading in for my Covid vaccine jab today. I know, I don’t look old enough, but that’s down to my highly-discipline­d approach to life.

The secret of my youthful appearance is regular exercise, a wholesome diet and, most importantl­y, never updating my profile picture. The first two discipline­s are optional but you’ve got to stick rigidly to the third or the game’s up.

So there you have it. The secret to eternal youth is to get yourself a newspaper column, don’t update the profile picture and never, ever be seen in public.

As the hour draws nearer to my vaccinatio­n, so the conspiracy theories begin to gnaw away at my brain. My main conspiracy of concern being the

Bill Gates’ murderous nanobots gnawing at people’s brains conspiracy. Fearmonger­s reckon that, rather than a cure for Covid-19, the vaccine is a ruse to get tiny mind-controllin­g robots into our bloodstrea­m. Once inside they’ll be able to assume control of our minds and get us to do Mr G’s bidding.

For a while I was concerned, but then I thought: what task requires the unquestion­ing loyalty of everyone on the planet to achieve? Can’t be household chores. Who’s attic is so untidy it needs seven billion people to put right?

Unless he’s determined to secure the world record for longest conga (it’s 119,986 people, in case you’re wondering) controllin­g the minds of everyone in the world is pointless. Plus, given the palava of trying to book a vaccinatio­n appointmen­t online, I doubted whether the technology exists in any workable way. If it does, like the vaccinatio­n booking system, it would be brimming with glitches. Time after time I filled the online form, ticking the appropriat­e ‘available’ time slot boxes, only to be told, time after time, that the ‘available’ slot was now unavailabl­e. Granted, there were thousands of over-55s trying to secure the same time slots, but surely there was a better way.

It took me 40 goes at least, over 48 hours, before I secured a place. Still, being over-55 with a partner who is under-55 meant I got the jump on her. It wasn’t until several days later that The German, being younger, was eligible to book her vaccine. She did it in about three attempts! Still, I thought, at least she’ll have to wait longer for her jab. Turns out she gets hers the next day?

Honestly, this rank unfairness has aged me no end. Not that you’ll be able to tell, of course.

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The shape of things to come?

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