Dating : An Inner-City Anecdote

‘Will you be one to get the vaccine for the pandemic disease when it is ready and created?’ asked the reporter.

‘No I will not,’ said the subject, a man in his early sixties.

‘Why not?’ asked the reporter. ‘It’s a deadly disease, highly contagious, as you might know. You’re wearing a mask there to stop the spread.’

‘I will not get the vaccine,’ the man started. ‘Because I believe it to be a gross infringement on our personal liberties and freedoms.’

‘And what if it becomes mandatory?’ said the reporter. ‘What if the government makes it necessary to get the vaccine, or else those un-vaccinated won’t be allowed out in public they won’t be able to leave their homes.’

‘Hah! That won’t happen.’ The man put his neon green bicycle helmet back on, and adjusted his N95 face mask, readying to resume his afternoon ride. ‘They can make me distance myself from others when I want to eat in a café,’ he said to the reporter. ‘They can make me wear this damn mask. They can stop me from traveling overseas. But they can NOT make me take a bloody vaccine if I don’t want it. I’ll stay at home if I have to. I’ll stay at home and I’ll die at home, and there’s nothing they can do about it. I’ll die before I take the jab.’

It seemed the man had said all he wanted to say now, and he began to pedal away.

‘Hey!’ the reporter called out to him. ‘What if I said you could take that vaccine today and live healthy for another 10 or 15 years? Or, you could not take it, and die in three short weeks. What would you say to that?!’

‘DIE!!!’ the man yelled over his shoulder, kicking his Cannondale into 2nd gear as he rode away.

The reporter shook her head and watched the man, half-way up the block, weaving his way through people trying to walk on the footpath.