To Boost or Not to Boost?

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

At first our government was issuing assurances that two COVID shots would be enough to keep most people from getting the dreaded disease, and a "booster" shot would not be necessary.  But then minds began to change as the new "delta variant" raced across the country and around the globe, and some who had had the double dose of vaccine began testing positive for the enhanced virus.   Generally, those who did test positive after two doses of the vaccine did not become nearly as sick as those who had remained unvaccinated.  

But the rise in the numbers of vaccinated people who were diagnosed with COVID was concerning, and recently Dr. Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health updated his agency's advice and came out in favor of a "booster" dose of the vaccine.  Our government immediately moved to get shots to those of our fellow citizens who had medical issues and were already "immuno-compromised," and yesterday President Biden announced that the United States would begin providing booster shots to all Americans (over the age of twelve) eight months after they had their second shot of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.  

The first round of booster shots for the general public will begin September 20th.

And this aging, diabetic American will dutifully report to the local Walgreen's on October 19th, eight months to the day after I received my second Pfizer shot, and roll up my sleeve for the booster jab.  I will do it for myself, for my family, and for the few locals with whom I occasionally share air.

But I will also have a guilty conscience as I hog my third dose of the life-saving vaccine because I am fully aware that there is a global equity problem with COVID vaccine distribution, and millions of people in the poorer countries of the world have yet to receive their first dose, much less even have a faint hope of getting an eventual "booster."  And I also realize that I am old, bordering on ancient, and I will be hogging a third dose when routine inoculations have not even been offered to kids in our country who are under the age of twelve -  a group that contains four of my six grandchildren.  I get a third shot while they are being denied their first two - at a time when young children are getting ill and dying from COVID.

I am very concerned about the "fairness" of it all.  Yes, I will get there early on October 19th to get my booster shot, but I would stand aside and wait awhile if I knew that same shot could instead go into the arm of a third-world human being who wanted and needed it, or into the arm of some youngster in an overcrowded, underfunded US public elementary school.

I have enjoyed an abundance of privilege in my lifetime, and now would be a good time to enjoy the rare privilege of giving my place in line to someone who has not been so fortunate.

Equity should come before boosters.