Until 2021, “fully vaccinated” was not a standard phrase, any more than “fully married” or “fully graduated from college…”
— from an October 22 article in the Washington Post, “You’re not ‘fully vaccinated.’ You never will be.” by public health physician James Hamblin.
I guess I’m a little bit confused. But these are confusing times we live in.
Someone posted an image of a holy man — apparently, a patron saint — holding a sleepy-eyed capybara, on the website Taringa.net with the caption:
Rezale a San Carpincho para que no tengas Covid-19…
“Pray to Saint Carpincho so you don’t catch Covid-19…”
“Carpincho” being Spanish for “capybara”, a large, peaceful rodent that inhabits wetlands throughout South America.
That, by itself, is not confusing. Thanks to social media, carybaras have recently become potent (and familiar) symbols of compassion and gentleness, due to their amiable personalities.
But I also came across another example of the same patron saint, yesterday on Twitter, with a different caption.
San Keanu, patrono de mi corazón, protege a nuestros carpinchos…
“Saint Keanu, patron of my heart, protect our capybaras…”
So I’m confused as to whom, exactly, I should be directing my prayers. “San Carpincho”? “San Keanu”? Maybe they are one and the same patron saint, but known by various names?
I’d really like my prayers to be totally effective, if possible… because it appears that the vaccine I received was not. I keep seeing in the news, that this or that famous person, who was ‘fully vaccinated’, has died. ‘Fully vaccinated’ doesn’t mean what I thought it meant.
They congratulated me, when I got my second shot. “Well, Louis, you are now among the 190 million Americans who are fully vaccinated. Encourage your friends to make an appointment. We can lick this thing yet.”
Then they started giving out a third “booster” shot. I’m wondering how soon we’ll be told to get a fourth booster? In Israel, as of this month, officials require everyone to have three doses to be considered “fully vaccinated,” and they’ve secured fourth doses for each citizen as the virus continues to spread.
The term “fully vaccinated” is actually a new development, as far as I can tell. We’ve never before been subjected to a vaccine that left people “partially vaccinated”. Yes, I remember getting “booster shots” as a child, but that was, like, five years after the first shot. It adds to the confusion, when you assure people they are “fully vaccinated” — and then you change your mind.
Which might explain why only 58% of Americans have bothered to become “fully vaccinated”.
The New York Times has been tracking the pandemic, nationally and globally, and I noticed a chart that tracked the infections, and deaths, and vaccination rates — the “fully vaccinated” rates. Here’s a section of the global chart, showing a few counties that currently have high infection rates, and in some cases, high death rates. The numbers are from the past seven days.
I noticed that, among these countries with high infection rates last week, we have a mix of ‘barely vaccinated’ countries — like Armenia, less than 6% ‘fully vaccinated” — and ‘generously vaccinated’ countries —like Singapore, 82% ‘fully vaccinated’. Armenia had a fatality rate, last week, of 1.07 people per 100,000. Not too good.
Lithuania, with a ‘fully vaccinated’ rate of 59% — better than the U.S. and ten times the rate in Armenia — is seeing a the death rate nearly the same as Armenia. Also not good.
Dominica — 33% vaccinated — shows a fatality rate of 0.40. Moldova — 32% vaccinated — has a death rate of more than three times that of Dominica: 1.36 per 100,000.
Apparently, the coronavirus doesn’t care all that much, whether we are ‘fully vaccinated’ or not.
The virus seems to be as confused as I am.
Probably, it’s better to be “fully religious”.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.