YOU CAN GET ONE AT CVS:

People who were vaccinated with Pfizer shots six months ago or more have "almost no neutralizing ability" against the Omicron variant, while those who received boosters are in reasonably good shape, an Israeli study has found.

Prof. Gili Regev Yochay of Sheba Medical Center said that her research is "very worrisome" due to its implications for people who have had just two shots and had more than a half-year pass since their most recent vaccination -- which applies to many of the world's Pfizer vaccinees. However, it gives cause for "optimism" regarding the power of boosters to fight Omicron, albeit less effectively than they fight Delta.

My son is a bit of an anti-vaxxer himself, I guess, kicking and screaming, right up until the minute his booster has been administered, at which point he's provided with stickers for his stoicism and forbearance. He doesn't like this process and, to be honest, neither do we, but maintaining our child's immunisations is not merely good for him, it's good for those around us who can't receive them, and therefore need the greater protection an inoculated populace provides them. It's part of the social contract and one I'd be willing to oblige, even if there were no stickers. Luckily there are, which sweetens the deal marvellously.

For millions of years, people got sick and died of things that no longer bother us, illnesses to which we became inoculated the hard way. Diseases so removed from our privileged position in the modern world that my son's favourite pirate cartoons frequently make jokes about things like the black death and bubonic plague, which is a bit weird when you think about it. But comedy is, after all, tragedy plus time. It's just that, occasionally, time marches backwards, and we should be careful that we don't indulge the whims of those whose actions will ensure such tragedy stops being funny any more. Get your jabs and tell Auntie Pauline to do the same. It's not enough for us to ignore the kicking and the screaming, it should be challenged and addressed wherever we find it. If we need to offer a few stickers to sweeten the deal, then so be it.

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