I just called my local pharmacy to confirm that they are ready with this year’s flu and COVID vaccines, and happily they told me they are well supplied. However . . .

I was quickly informed that the COVID vaccine is available only to persons aged 65 or above. Luckily for me — if you believe that being old and decrepit is lucky — I am in that category, and so am eligible for my free shots. I will get both this week.

But for the rest of the population, the clock has been turned back to 2019, when we were first hit by the newly-identified coronavirus, and no vaccine existed to prevent or combat it. Since January of 2020, following release of the first vaccine, the CDC has logged 1,235,651 COVID-related deaths in the United States, out of a total of 2,216,648 deaths due to influenza, pneumonia and COVID-19 combined. [CDC.gov, as of September 25, 2025.]

Those numbers most likely include many cases involving people with other underlying health problems who might otherwise have survived. But imagine how many more might have died without the preventive vaccine . . . and how many more will now succumb to what is essentially a disease that is preventable or at least capable of being reduced in severity.

There are also millions of others who suffered horribly through the illness and survived, but still bear the pain of Long COVID. I doubt they would agree with those who claim it is no worse than “ordinary” flu.

I have been very fortunate, and have — since the advent of the very first flu shots many, many decades ago — been able to escape unscathed. I attribute that to the availability of vaccines, which I began getting every year after one horrendous bout of the Asian Flu, when I actually was afraid I wouldn’t die. But I now fear for all of those younger, supposedly less at-risk people around me who may not be so lucky.

And it’s all because of an unqualified, superstitious conspiracy nut who somehow managed to be appointed head of the Department of Health and Human Services by an equally unqualified, superstitious conspiracy nut — neither of whom gives a damn about the health and well-being of the people of the country they claim to love.

No one should be able to force you to take preventive measures for your own protection. But neither should anyone be able to prevent you from making those decisions for yourself, or keep you from accessing available health care when you want it.

But that is what’s happening. And I shudder to think of what the coming winter is going to bring.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/7/25