I am slightly wary of starting this today, not sure of exactly just what will emerge! You know that feeling when there are so many thoughts – and opinions – swirling around in one’s head and one doesn’t quite know how to put said thoughts – and opinions – into words, or moreover, whether one should? Just me? Oh, well, has never stopped me before. Here goes …
There’s nothing for it but to tackle the vaccine situation. There is no escape from the ‘Second Coming‘ – although, to be more precise, it seems there are three ‘Second Comings‘ to date! Which to choose? Silly question using a word which is, now, all but obsolete. There is no right to choose anymore and, it would seem, that those in the most vulnerable brackets, currently being vaccinated, are being given whatever is available – Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford University-AstraZeneca or, the latest, Moderna. Surprise! Surprise!
Confused in any way? Completely! I just googled – for confirmation – how many doses of each vaccine are necessary? ‘Some vaccines, like the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, require two doses and you must receive two doses of the same brand of vaccine.’ Under ‘COVID-19, Common questions’, this answer is dated 29 December 2020.
Below that, follows the question, ‘Do you need two doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines?’ with the answer, ‘Both vaccines require two doses to be administered with an interval of between four and 12 weeks – a change from the previous advice of four weeks between jabs.’ Designed to inspire confidence … not!!
That’s the thing, there is none and for justifiable reason! Without re-iterating it all again, I refer to my posts of 14th September, 2020, 21st September, 2020 and, conclusively, that of 13th November, 2020. Aside from the fact that all are the product of my own hand, the arguments are utterly convincing! No bullying, no aggression, no determination to convince but, rather, the offering of information gleaned by an enquiring mind – sceptical, I shall concede – for the purpose of drawing one’s own conclusion and making one’s own choice.
Everyone is familiar with the saying, ‘Thou doth protest too much’ and it is particularly relevant with regard to media presentation of the much-heralded vaccine. Confined, yet again, the relentless media scaremongering has moved up to fifth gear while, meanwhile, all coverage and discussion is of the vaccine, declared our only saviour. The figures are all-consuming as the footage moves into ICU units, bearing witness to the exhausted frontline workers struggling to save lives while we are drip-fed more predictions of gloom: the prospect of no travel in 2021, another Christmas subject to social distancing and restrictions and the wearing of masks indefinitely! Call that living?
So, the vaccine … As I said, there are now three versions available in the UK as we, seemingly, fork out millions to secure. One step short of declaring it compulsory, one knows all too well, that that is exactly what it will be! No vaccine, no travel. The words ‘over’ and ‘barrel’ come to mind! I have already heard of someone, locally, who received an email from Ticketmaster stating that, in order to gain access to a concert she has booked in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh in May, she will have to produce evidence of having had the vaccine or a negative COVID test. A concert?! Our tickets to see Andrea Bocelli in Rome, last June, have been re-scheduled for the same date this year … Does an informed decision not to have a fast-tracked vaccine subject one to a life of confinement as penance?
‘They can attempt to reassure all they wish but the timescale prohibits the use of the word ‘safe’, there being no scope to monitor possible long-term side-effects.’ An excerpt from my post of 13th November, 2020. I stand by that but, more pressing, is the media bombardment so deliberately omitting coverage of serious adverse side-effects – including death – emerging in the rolling out of these vaccines …
Only yesterday, I was told of a friend of a close friend – she is a doctor, as is her father – who was vaccinated and has been unable to leave her bed since! No underlying health issues, she is, thankfully, not paralysed unlike the person I read of on Facebook, today – in response to a discussion on said vaccine – who was paralysed for two days! Then, there is the healthy, 56-year-old Obstetrician from Miami who died 16 days after having the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine: ‘SAVE MORE LIVES’ Who was Dr Gregory Michael and what was his cause of death? https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13690772/dr-gregory-michael-miami-coroanvirus-vaccine-dead/
Why are these cases not reported?! Requiring of no answer, I stop short of suggesting it is criminal but the media manipulation is contemptuous. Each and every human being has the right to choose! The right to choose whether or not he/she has a COVID-19 vaccine subject to ALL the facts! A vaccine which, undeniably, has been fast-tracked – regardless of flannel – whose rhetoric includes the words ‘monitoring’ and ‘ongoing’. I repeat, look back at my three posts I cited earlier.
In the same way I object to being referred to as ‘straight’ – aside from the fact I am heterosexual, I refuse to be reduced to a label – I am not an ‘anti-vaxxer’! As one who holds paramount, freedom of choice, I have no desire to force my opinions on anyone; however, I cannot stand back and ignore the blatant media manipulation with regard to this virus and its vaccine. We, supposedly – or, used to – live in a democratic country which values freedom of speech. Freedom of speech, however, demands freedom of reporting and that very freedom has, seemingly, been contravened. COVID-19 has deprived us of so much that we hold dear. My bugbear is that, without all the facts, we are, in turn, being denied the right to choose …
‘There is no such thing as freedom of choice unless there is freedom to refuse.’
David Hume
Enough said.
This is Trish, signing off.
