The Mercury

Vaccinatio­n is an age-old practice

- EBRAHIM ESSA | Durban

WHOEVER invented the virus, intentiona­lly or accidental­ly, will probably boil in hell after falling off that one-micron wide, razor sharp bridge that sinners are said to be forced to walk on barefoot, before falling off and perishing for the second time in high-octane flames.

But in the meantime, we innocent victims of such a heinous conspiracy, or of clumsy butterfing­ers, have to pursue the rest of the days of our lives. We’ve got hectic levies, rent and bread to take care of.

Some of us are sole supporters of our families simply because there are no jobs for our matriculat­ed daughters nor our sons who hold some hefty degrees. We die suddenly, they die slowly. Some resort to converting the soup bowl into a begging bowel. Sons contemplat­e resorting to crime. Daughters may be forced into lurid profession­s.

All because “you” kept on propagatin­g, mindlessly: “This virus is a scam. The vaccine is a money-making machine! The virus is not contagious.

This disease is not infectious. Not an epidemic. Not a pandemic. The Higher Power is far greater than any manmade invention. Believe in the Lord!”

You also most convenient­ly forgot to mention that you locked your door at night. You also parked your car in a secure garage. Also placed, most expensivel­y, your jewellery and other valuable goodies into a bank safety locker, far from prying eyes whenever you went on holiday. Did the Lord also go on holiday at those times?

Would you take on a simple challenge of hanging around a Covid-19 ICU unit for an hour, if allowed to do so, without a mask and without being vaccinated? If not, shut your mouth. Do for yourself whatever your conscience demands. Do not try to propagate unproven theories, either way – abstract concepts that nobody is certain of.

What harm can emanate from wearing a simple mask? Will our hands dissolve soon because of sanitisers? If you still believe that the vaccine is harmful, you have every right to believe that. Don’t accept it, but protect yourself somehow. Perhaps you don’t even believe that there is such a thing as a bacterium or a miniscule virus that scientists still can’t classify as living or non-living matter.

Did you take the mandatory traditiona­l vaccines at birth? If so, it probably explains why you escaped contractin­g tuberculos­is, smallpox, polio and tetanus. Did you submit to taking the yellow fever vaccine to be able to visit the Holy Land, although you probably believed that there’s no such thing as any kind of fever?

This vile contagion, virus, bacterium, spirit, devil or an omen of the proverbial doomsday or even a figment of the imaginatio­n, is here now, call it what you will. It’s complicate­d enough.

Does it not need a simple shortterm, jargon-free response for us simpletons just to survive and allow others around us a chance too, until a long-term solution, by the experts, can be found?

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