A few weeks ago, Urban Dictionary added the word “Vaxhole,” defined as follows: “One who has been fully vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus and brags about it.”
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=vaxhole
To be clear, I couldn’t care less if you get the vaccine or not. If you have concerns about possible side effects, or the speed at which with this vaccine was developed and made available, I legitimately respect and will defend that. Additionally, if you have moral objections to at least two of them being developed using aborted fetal cells, I honor your convictions. Even if you’re convinced that getting the vaccine implants some sort of microchip tracking device that allows the government to do whatever it is that you’re convinced they do, I stand by it being your body and your choice. You are not your brother’s keeper and you have absolutely no moral, legal, ethical, or societal obligation to inject something into your body to protect the rest of us. Period.
All I ask in return is: can you please show me the same respect? I have no intention of “bragging” about being vaccinated, nor will I be posting my vaccination card online nor appearing in any PSA’s encouraging people to do so. If I was asked to be a spokesperson for getting vaccinated, I would refuse. People who begin conversations with “did you get the shot,” nauseate me. There is absolutely nothing noble, brave, or virtuous about getting the vaccine, despite what doctors, politicians, your friends and family, or the media tell you.
However, there’s also nothing wrong with getting it, either.
The vaccine seems to be the new mask. Although this time, people seem even angrier if you don’t align with their point of view. As my view evolved over the last few weeks, the vile, loathsome, threatening, and downright rageful emails increased exponentially, as if I had not only betrayed the country, but did so while mowing down peoples’ families. This is where the disconnect comes in.
I understood, given the propaganda surrounding masks, why people were angry at those of us who refused to wear them. After all, we were allegedly putting other people at risk by not covering our faces. As stupid as that thinking is and remains, it was and is the common belief amongst most Americans.
Who in the hell are my wife and I hurting, harming, or threatening by getting the shot? Quite literally, the answer is…no one! Yet the vitriol is real.
Further complicating my ability to understands peoples’ hostility is the fact that we didn’t make the decision by being “coerced” by the government or health officials, which I’ve made clear time and time again. My wife and I couldn’t care less about getting Covid, and have every reason to believe we’ve already had it (though we never were tested despite knowingly being exposed to people who had twice in 2020). There’s one very simple reason we went ahead and got the shot; so that we’re one step closer to resuming life as we like to live it. Period.
Countless countries have already publicly announced that travel to their nations will be forbidden without proof of vaccination, and while, like with everything else Covid-related, political lines are being drawn over “vaccine passports,” it is clear that they will be necessary at various places in America for the foreseeable future; in fact, they already are required if you want to attend any sort of event in New York, one of our favorite places to visit. Hawaii has announced that they will implement a “vaccination required” policy later this year, and Christina and I try to visit there at least once every year. More importantly, businesses are struggling with ways to attract the greatest number of people back to their establishments, and with the majority of Americans being terrified of Covid, the ability to say “everyone around you in this place is safe,” is the quickest way for most companies to begin generating recovery revenue. In fact, a bar in Denver announced this week that they now require proof of vaccination if you want to drink inside. It has begun.
https://www.travelweekly.com/Hawaii-Travel/Insights/Hawaii-eyes-summer-rollout-of-a-vaccine-passport
https://www.cntraveller.com/article/covid-vaccine-travel
Additionally, while the CDC is taking an agonizingly long time to publicly acknowledge common sense, it’s getting closer by the week. Their totally meaningless “guidance” has progressed as follows:
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- If you’ve been vaccinated, nothing changes, stay home
- If you’ve been vaccinated, you may visit with other vaccinated people while wearing masks, but not unvaccinated people
- If you’ve been vaccinated, you may visit with other vaccinated people and not wear masks.
- If you’ve been vaccinated, you may visit with anyone and not wear a mask, but still must wear one in public. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html
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While none of that makes any sense, what actually has the last 13 months? Just days ago, Washoe County in Nevada announced that once 75% of its’ total population has been vaccinated, everything goes back to normal…EXCEPT the mask mandate will remain in place. Total lunacy. https://www.kolotv.com/app/2021/04/07/washoe-co-reopening-plan-calls-for-eased-covid-19-restrictions/
The good news is that the CDC is moving in the proper direction of making it official that once vaccinated, a mask is no longer “necessary.” Once they do, it will greenlight businesses (and hopefully states and counties) to alter their policies appropriately. While I have rarely covered my face in the last year, there are things you simply can’t do without one, most notably, get on a plane, or enjoy a casino in Las Vegas.
And so, with all of that so obvious to Christina and me, we discussed the vaccine and deduced the following:
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- We put things in our body all of the time that come with endless possible side-effects.
- Even after decades of various products being tested, approved, and then on the market, we suddenly find out new side effects that they cause. In other words, in our opinion, being concerned about this vaccine being “rushed,” is irrational both in the near and long term
- Known immediate side effects are extraordinarily rare and not above those of other vaccines.
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In the end, we decided to, as we said “just get the damn shot.” Which, by the way, was a total nothing burger…not even the dreaded “sore arm,” that seemingly EVERYONE experiences. We drank lots of water beforehand, iced our arms immediately after and took some ibuprofen…and we never felt a thing. The only unpleasant part is when you actually feel the poison…err…vaccine entering your arm. It seems to simultaneously burn and sting for ½ second. Big whoop. So now we just wait for our third arm to grow or Bill Gates to show up at our door.
So, what’s the problem? Why the hate, anger, and rage directed at us? If people were merely “disappointed,” that after a year of raging against everything Covid-related, I did what I’ve always done and made a decision based entirely on facts, logic, and reason, I could at least understand that, despite the irrationality of it. This is different; it’s palpable fury that is never accompanied by any sort of thought-based objections. And that’s your homework for the week…explain it to me in words not grunts and exclamation points. Why are you so angry at people choosing, of their own volition to get a vaccination that you are not being forced to get? Why in the world do you care at all and why direct whatever the rage is this causes you at the people who get the shot and never say another word about it? I’ll be here waiting…
