I was phoned - twice - this morning, by two different bright-voiced young women, wanting to âask me a few questions, before booking me an appointment for âmyâ vaccine injection.â
Theyâre obviously used to lots of people saying, as I did, that they wouldnât be having the vaccine, because as soon as I said it, they just went along politely, and said their goodbyes. All very civil and friendly. I didnât catch any note of disapproval; nor of surprise. I wonder what the real figures of refuseniks are? âI think we should be told!â But I donât imagine we will be - not honestly and early, pour encourager les autres refuseniks. Weird blend of blatant scam and mass self- and mutual-hypnosis, this whole royal balls-up, innit?
Snap. Except in my case the GP reception bloke misheard me and asked âhow about tomorrowâ (which would have been Saturday). I repeated that no, I wonât be attending tomorrow or any other time and please take me off your list. âWe wonât contact you again this year thenâ. Far from ideal but it will have to do. Parallel to all this, though, there are central NHS databases churning out letters recommending âyourâ vaccine, so far weâve had three of these. Somewhat like the TV license reminders but a little more polite, so far . . .
Thanks @rippon
A very important subject, and one that hints at so many big problems. Unfortunately I didnât think the Guardian article was very useful, only making vague hand-wavy claims about structural racism. The history of the subject in hair raising - particularly in the US. There are so many bad examples that itâs impossible to know even where to start!
Incidentally, on poking around I also found an interesting story that the CIA hired bands of doctors in Pakistan to use the cover of a vaccine programme to secretly get DNA samples from people in order to trace members of bin-Ladenâs family.
I wonder how many people of Pakistani descent living in the UK have heard such stories?
With the clear history of being used as medical experiments, vaccine (and other drug) guinea pigs, second class treatment in our health system and the potential differences in physiological response, is it any wonder that non-white people are sceptical?
Cheers
PP