The Third Time Is No Charm - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
The Third Time Is No Charm
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Washington — I was shot last week. No, I was not shot by any of the roving bands of White Supremacists who, I am told by the media, ply their hate so freely here in Northern Virginia. Nor was I shot by the Ku Kluxers who inhabit these parts, and whom the present governor, Ralph Northam, has done so little to oppose — has Mr. Northam been concealing his Confederate heritage? I am certain that the governor-elect will improve on Mr. Northam’s pathetic record of inaction against the Klan and the other extremist hoodlums here in Virginia.

I was actually shot by a very nice lady armed with a vial of vaccine to prevent my getting the dread plague. It was my third shot, my booster shot, and it was the most unpleasant of the three shots. Would I do it again? I would probably do it again, though I would set aside the next three days, perhaps four days, to allow for the recovery. It was an onerous undertaking.

My first shot was a piece of cake, as we say. It left no reaction. My second shot was more problematic. It left me fatigued for a day and with a mild headache. As for discomfort I would rate it one on a spectrum to 10. It was not particularly painful, but it was noticeable.

I can understand people who are averse to taking a shot in the arm because President Joe Biden orders it.

Thus, I expected little trouble with my third shot. Incidentally, the vaccine that I took was the Moderna vaccine. I took it on all three occasions, as it was the only vaccine available. I would have preferred the Pfizer vaccine, which has received higher marks from my fellow hypochondriacs, but the Pfizer was unavailable. Perhaps I should have held out for the Pfizer because my third experience with Moderna was, as I have said, unpleasant.

My first two shots were not problematic, though the second shot caused me to oversleep and to suffer a mild headache. With this third shot, the so-called booster shot, I have not been so lucky. After it I slept for 12½ hours and awakened groggy. The next night I spent another 12½ hours in the sack, and on the third night I slept for 10 hours. I fear I may be coming down with bedsores. People have different reactions to the vaccine. I have known some to have a delayed reaction by as much as a week after having their shot. If the reaction were nothing more than a mild high, say from splitting a bottle of Pol Roger with a friend, that would be tolerable. The delayed reactions that I have heard about, however, include headaches, nausea, and continued problems with sleep. That is too much.

So, I can understand people who are averse to taking a shot in the arm because President Joe Biden orders it. Some of them are doing it on the grounds of principle. They are from the limited government crowd. They object to having the government tell them how to live their lives. They can foresee the day when a shot in the arm is looked back on as the opening for other intrusions that are clearly unconstitutional. After all, consider the extremist nonsense that the so-called progressives are urging on affable Joe today. We live with a disloyal opposition that has no sense of restraint. Others are opposing the shot in the arm because they have discovered what I have discovered from my experience with the vaccine — it can be unpleasant.

Yet as I have said, given the choice of living in a world where I am vulnerable to COVID-19 and a world where I am pretty much invulnerable to it, I shall take the shot. Moreover, inasmuch as my shot is a blow against the spread of COVID-19 I am for the vaccine. As I see it, taking the vaccine is the only way to rid the world of the Chinese flu. I suggest you take the shot too. Sure, oversleeping and having a headache or nausea are unpleasant, but suffering from COVID-19 is worse, and remember the vaccine is to prevent the Chinese flu. Anything that causes President Xi Jinping’s projects a setback is preferable.

I am not saying that President Xi Jinping caused the spread of COVID-19, but the case can be made for it. Imagine how the worldwide press would be howling against America if we had been implicated in the spread of the pandemic. Actually, if memory serves, there are those who have been implicating America in the spread of the virus despite the fact that America has been leading the fight against its spread. I am no student of geography, but as I recall Wuhan is in China and it is in Wuhan that the dratted virus originated. Let us remind President Xi that we in America can all read a map.

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
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R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief ofThe American Spectator. He is the author of The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: The Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery. He makes frequent appearances on national television and is a nationally syndicated columnist, whose articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Washington Times, National Review, Harper’s, Commentary, The (London) Spectator, Le Figaro (Paris), and elsewhere. He is also a contributing editor to the New York Sun.
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