‘Anti-vaxxers’ a threat to others; live in denial of science, reality

“Oh Bachchoo, know that life is waiting
Endlessly. No use debating
Time will deal its empty spaces
Absences and missed embraces —
Yet hours and days occur to pass
Our present is an illusion, alas!”
From The Love Song of Imoji the Parsi by Bachchoo

Science is, even if it originated in inklings a few thousand years ago, a fairly recent phenomenon in the evolution of human imagination, intelligence and determination. Irrationality, articles of faith unsupported by evidence or reason, flares of emotional conviction, theories and religions born of the fear of extinction… these and more precede the persuasions of reality.

They haven’t passed. We live with them in this millennium and I have no doubt that they will in defiance of reason and “reality”, persist through very many generations to come. As I write, I do realise that there will be those who oppose my definition or the scientific, or observational definition, of “reality”.

Let them. In fact, I want, instead of “let”, to use a four-letter word that begins with “f”, but respect the readership and restrain myself (yes, for bloody once! -Ed).

This outpouring, gentle reader, is occasioned by the fact that at least two of my friends, one an Asian woman and another a male Caribbean actor-musician, have declined to be vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus that stalks the world. I have asked them why they choose in the time of this pandemic to risk succumbing, in whatever degree of severity, to this disease, and perhaps even more importantly, why they are selfishly volunteering to act as agents for its transmission. Their contact with others could result in the transmission of infections and in deaths.

Both my friends decline my invitation to argue their “case” for not getting vaccinated. They appreciate my concerns, for their own well-being and for the possibility that they can transmit the deadly virus, but both of them decline to give me reasons for their anti-vaccination stance. Why? Because they say it will lead to an argument. It certainly would. And I would win that argument because I am on the side of scientific truths, and the potential losers don’t want to engage. Logic is not the recess of the brain in which they choose to reside.

Nature in the form of this virus and its urge to survive, perpetrates itself, mutates and thrives by infesting itself in human bodies. It’s a natural enemy as it makes us sick and kills some of us. Our immediate defence as humans is not the acquisition of eventual natural immunity, but the use of an intelligent counter-attack. We’ve done it! The vaccines exist and I, as well as most people that I know, have availed of their protection.

I live in London and am told today that 33 per cent of Londoners have resisted vaccination. I can encounter these people on the streets, in shops, on buses and trains — in houses if I am not circumspect and careful!
That these “resistors” (I wanted to use stronger words!) choose to risk catching Covid-19 is their concern. That they dare to risk passing it on is mine and of every one of the 67 per cent who are not these selfish, misguided, Gadarene swine.

To be fair — or at least to represent the nonsense to which these “anti-vaxxers” resort — I ought to rehearse their arguments for their self-risking and selfish denial.

Some anti-vaxxers have been fooled by scientific jargon into believing that there is some scientific evidence to demonstrate that vaccines are harmful and far from preventing deaths, cause it. These idiots are inveigled with terms such as “mitochondrial” and “cellular immune response”. Armed with these terms, fed to them by God knows who or why, which they obviously don’t know the arse from elbow of, they argue against vaccination.

Then there are the conspiracy wallas:

Bill Gates has put microchips into the vaccine so that he can control the behaviour and choices and lives of the vaccinated. I encountered a carpet cleaner who told me that the reason he wasn’t getting vaccinated was because Bill Gates was trying to control his life.

I asked him why Mr Gates would want anything from or with him. Answer came there none.

Then there is the other theory that the vaccine causes cancer and the international pharmaceutical companies are giving billions of people cancer so they can sell them anti-cancer drugs. The problem with that theory is that not one person has caught cancer as a result of being vaccinated. But then some people believe that lizards from outer space are controlling our destinies — never mind the evidence.

The most alluring anti-vaxx theory is that the 5G masts combined with the vaccines will make us all magnetic. Wow! If I’m negative and you’re positive, honey — natural attraction? So, will everyone be stuck to everyone like refrigerator magnets to the coolest?

There are some religious maniacs who believe that muttering some phrase or charm will save them from Covid-19. I will not attend their funerals or say a prayer for them.

Perhaps my two anti-vaxxer friends have some different reasons for their stubborn selfishness from the ones I’ve heard and described above. I do value both of them but I haven’t asked if they wear masks on the Tube or in public places. I have decided that I will wear a mask when I attend their funerals.