Today is a health day. Today, Anne and I have appointments to get vaccinated at the local CVS. We are getting both the new bivalent Covid booster, and our annual flu shot. They are supposed to be safe to take together, but I wonder if they will put one in each arm or just gang up on just one? This will be our third Covid booster. Neither of us have had Covid, at least as far as we know. We’ve both all but given up the wearing of masks, except for where they are still required, which is at fewer and fewer places. We are seniors and recognize our continued vulnerability to these diseases. Hundreds of Americans are still dying daily from Covid and with winter coming, this morbidity is sure to rise. It hasn’t gotten us yet and I aim to not let it get us now.

I am surprised by some other senior’s response to these boosters. In that they have already declined them or are at least contemplating this new one’s decline. Even the biggest Covid coward I know surprised me when they said that they had not had any of the boosters. Then there was President Biden’s announcement this week that the pandemic is over. It is not. Just because we want to be done with Covid does not mean that Covid is done with us. It will continue to ripple through society for years to come.

When I was little, in the 1950s, my dad was stationed on the island of Guam. I had to get lots of vaccines just to go there, but at the end of his tour, we planned a family vacation, a tour of south Asia, Thailand to India. To go on this trip, I needed to get about twenty shots. I kid you not. Back then they didn’t have any of the bundled vaccinations, like DTAP, that they have now. So, each disease got its own shot and south Asia had loads of horrible diseases to choose from. Anyway, I eventually sucked it up and relented to become a human pincushion. It was a great trip that I still hold vivid memories from. So, I guess that I have been conditioned from an early age to accept vaccines and can now add Covid to the list of diseases that I have been inoculated from.