On Saturday afternoon I went to my friendly neighborhood pharmacist for my annual flu and COVID vaccinations. Contrary to what Bobby Kennedy Jr. would have you believe, I survived. Two little pinpricks, one drop of blood on the Bandaid, and the only reaction I had was what I have every year — about 24 hours of feeling really, really tired and sluggish.
That’s it. No pain, no aches, no nausea, no headache. And — while I hope I’m not jinxing myself by saying this — I’ve gotten my flu shots every year for about 50 years, and I haven’t had the flu since somewhere in the early 1970s. That was the year I was so sick I was afraid I might not die.
Luckily, my bathroom at that time had the sink situated directly next to the toilet, so I was able to . . . well, never mind. But when I finally headed back to bed after one late-night session, I got three steps from the bathroom before I passed out cold. I woke to my son, then about 6 or 7 years old, kneeling beside me on the floor, trying to revive me and crying, “Mommy, Mommy, please get up!”
That was the year I got smart, admitted I wasn’t superhuman, and began getting annual flu shots.
When COVID came along, and a vaccine was created, I signed right up for those too. Gratefully, they’ve worked as well.
So what I have to say to RFK Jr. is this:
“I have lived with this body for a long, long time. No one knows it better than I do. And no one else has the right to tell me what to do with it.
When I was a little girl, I suffered through mumps, chicken pox, whooping cough, and German measles, because there were no vaccines yet. It was through sheer luck — and my mother’s keeping my sister and me away from crowds all summer — that we escaped the polio epidemics. And when the vaccine for that was developed, again I was first in line.
So when it was my turn to be the mom with two children to protect, I made sure they got the full range of vaccines. And they grew up healthy, without all the childhood miseries I had lived through.
All the diseases that have been virtually wiped out since I was a child — smallpox, diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, mumps, polio, etc. — were conquered until you came along and decided the vaccines, and not the diseases, were inherently dangerous. And that would be okay if you were only talking to yourself, and if you weren’t in charge of the health of every single person in this country.
In short, I think you, sir, are an idiot. An ignorant, incompetent, worm-brained dummkopf whom your own family has openly disavowed . . . and they are one close-knit clan, so it must take a lot for them to turn their backs on one of their own. But you could redeem yourself, at least to some extent, by resigning before you’re fired or impeached, and let our country return to the days when we were able to obtain — and afford — good health care.
And in the meantime, don’t tell me what I may or may not do to myself. I haven’t gotten this far by being stupid.”
Just sayin’ . . .
Brendochka
10/12/26
