The first vaccine I didn’t take

In my 40 years of work as a reporter, I’ve learned a great deal about evidence.

I’ve also learned about intuition and instinct.

Much earlier, in the winter of 1957, I was a student at Amherst College. One day out of nowhere, the administration announced that a flu pandemic from Asia had arrived in America—

And we should all go to the infirmary and take a vaccine. Right away.

I barely knew what flu was. I’d had colds. But flu?

The whole idea struck me as preposterous.

A wave of dangerous illness was heading our way? It sounded like a World War 2 news broadcast.

Besides, I was busy studying. I wasn’t about to stand in line with a bunch of dutiful students to take a shot in the arm. I failed to see the connection between a germ from Asia and an injection in Massachusetts.

I thought: I’m not going to get sick anyway. This is rubbish.

So I skipped the recommendation. I went to the cafeteria, had a strong cup of coffee, and trudged over to the library to read Spinoza.

I didn’t get sick.

In the years that followed, I remembered that.

“Ignore mandates; don’t get sick.”

That’s not perfect logic, but perfection isn’t always available.

I can say this. Make a list of all the vaccines for all the so-called diseases. I’ve never had any of those diseases, and I never took any of the vaccines.

There should be some kind of official award for all the people about whom this is true.

“What gave you immunity, Mr. Jones?”

“Hmm. It wasn’t my diet. That’s for sure. Maybe it was the vodka. And the lack of exercise, except for walks in the woods. I collect snakes. A rattlesnake bit me once. Maybe that helped. Do cigars count as vaccines? I only eat beef with the fat on it.”

Aside from Constitutional protections against government interference, I think that, in the face of the preposterous theory of vaccination, people ought to be able to justify not taking the shots on any preposterous basis they choose.

“The moon told me to abstain from injections.”