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All I Want for Christmas is my COVID Vax

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footnotes :

• There's more than one vaccine available, but my lyrics work best in the singular.


• Not being able to hug my best friends is the worst of my deprivations. The public library being closed is the second worst.


• In the USA we probably won't reach that 95% vaccination rate that creates "herd health". But if each person wise enough to get vaccinated can pursuade 8 friends to also get vaccinated, we could come a lot closer to the ideal.


• Currently it is hoped that everyone in the USA who wants vaccination could get vaccinated by Spring, thus by Easter more or less.


• "herd health" is the level at which a disease can't find enough vulnerable victims to which it can be transmitted, thus the disease dies out or becomes very rare. This was accomplished worldwide for Smallpox and is accomplished in most countries for Polio.


• Maybe the phrase "community health" would be more appealing to most people than "herd health" , because we don't like thinking of ourselves as members of a "herd" (a herd of cattle ?) but most of us do recognize that we are part of a "community".

Update 5/28/2021

I got my second Pfizer vaccination on 2/14/2021. That's Valentine's Day. Don't you just love that ? I do !

As I write this most areas in the USA have reached the 50% vaccinated level. There's a lot of public pressure to end the mask mandates and to "re-open" to do "business as ususal".

But we really need to get vaccination rates a lot higher to end the threats of infection , to end this pandemic. As Dr Fauci said, each vaccinated person is a "dead end" for the virus, ie for futher spread. When we have enough dead ends, the virus will have nowhere to go.

Meanwhile we all must continue to wear face masks, covering nose and mouth, and keep distance, etc., when indoors with unknown others, when outdoors in crowds. But those who are vaccinated can give themselves the reward of private gatherings with vaccinated friends and family.

I recently got invited to the home of a pair of very dear friends (whom I know to be fully vaccinated). I assumed this would be strictly outdoors, as our previous backyard lunchs have been. But amazingly I was encouraged to come indoors while my host cooked (he takes pride in being a very good cook). How very strange that felt. But then before leaving we exchanged hugs. How very strange that felt. And how wonderful. How magical.

to encourage others : display your card.

After you are fully vaccinated, you could wear a copy of your vaccination card in a plastic card holder on a pin or lanyard. You will of course still be wearing your face mask. It's a quiet statement that masks are still important , even for those who are vaccinated.

You may want to erase your patient number and your date of birth from the copy you will be displaying.

Keep your original vaccination card in a safe place. CDC says don't laminate it because that makes it harder to read. So make a photocopy or other copy and put the copy in a card holder or lamination. You don't even need to go to the copy shop if you have a scanner and printer. That's how I made my copy, and saved the file on my computer.

Those of you who have cell phones may want to keep an image of your card on your omnipresent phone as well as an image on your desktop/laptop/tablet computer. Fine with me.

I've been wearing my card on a lanyard for the past couple of months. Only when going out in public of course. And of course, still masked.

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• Me and Julio (not at the school-yard), lyrics for a Paul Simon classic , updated for the Corona epidemic.


• Everybody Must Get Masked, song lyrics to the tune of Dylan's Rainy Day Women, better known as "everybody must get stoned". written in June 2020.


• Everybody must STAY masked (until we reach "herd health" level of vaccinations. Written 5/25/2021, when vaccination rates are only half-way there in most localities. Includes samples of letters to send your state Governor , your local County Board of Supervisors, local City Council, and those stores you spend your money at.


• What a Good Leader Could Have Said in February 2020. about disclosing what was already known about the COVID danger and discussing measures against it. Telling the truth and summoning courageous responses.