My Wife's Dilemma

My wife surprised me yesterday by announcing that she's going to take the vaccine. She won't make a fuss. Once she's called upon, she'll go and get her shot. I told her I'm not going to take it, no matter what.

"I know," she replied. "But I am."
"Okay."

I had no other answer, and I still refuse to go into any argument on these kind of topics. There isn't any point in arguing. No-one is swayed by it. Then I reminded myself that most people suffer no side-effects from the vaccine. Yet I couldn't help listing in my mind all the attractive single ladies I know. I concluded that I'm probably all right no matter what.

I'm not sure what my wife made of my refusal to sway her away from her declared intention, but she brought the topic up again this morning with some additional information. She's fed up with mask-wearing, and if taking the vaccine is what's required to get rid of it, then she'll take it.

Again, I refused to go into any arguments. However, I suggested she'd push the decision as far into next year's flu season as possible. This year's flu season is over, so there won't be many cases, and it will be impossible to say whether the vaccine makes things better or worse. I think there's a good chance it will make matters worse, and there's no point in risking this possibility before we have more cases we can relate to.

I think this struck a nerve with my wife. She didn't object to my speculations. We're dealing with a largely untested vaccine, and there's hardly any serious investigation into side effects. We have to do the numbers ourselves based on what little data we can find, and those numbers will be hard to get through the summer with the flu season over.

There were all sorts of other things I could have brought up. But that wouldn't have been very helpful. My wife's point was her desire to comply with the rules, and that this made her wish for a shortcut. I could have brought up the increasing number of people disregarding the rules. I could have told her to break the rules herself. I could have told her that she could lie about her vaccine status, at least until the vaccine passports come rolling out. I could have told her all sorts of things. But that would be missing the point. She's right about the situation. Anyone wishing to comply with the rules is being pressured into taking the vaccine.

My advice is to resist this pressure as long as possible, but not necessarily for ever. There will come a day when we know enough to make an educated decision on the vaccine. If next year's flu season comes and goes without any alarming side-effects among people we know, it's probably safe to take it. But we're not there yet, so the prudent thing to do is to get as far back in line as possible.

Smallpox vaccine

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