Fleet Street legend and Mirror columnist, Paul Routledge, sends gentle tales from his West Yorkshire allotment, Mrs R’s pantry and his local, the Old White Bear. This week, Mr and Mrs R are nursing sore arms after their eighth Covid jab, but would rather be safe than sorry with the new Omicron variant around
I hear otherwise sensible people saying they can’t be bothered to have yet another vaccination against Covid-19. It’s almost fashionable. Fashionable, and foolish. That’s why we’re both nursing sore arms from our eighth jab.
Once again, we had to flog across the Aire Valley to Silsden, the traffic-jam capital of Yorkshire. This time to a pharmacy, not the health centre. Mrs R fixed the appointment, and heroically drove us there – 45 minutes to cover three miles. Public transport would have been two buses, and they don’t connect.
But at our age, we can’t be dedicated followers of fashion. So far, vaccination has kept Covid from our door. I listen to the doctors, not the taproom experts who say the disease isn’t dangerous any more.
The virus that killed tens of thousands during the pandemic never went away. Only last week, I met with a fellow writer who went down with a serious case of the virus. Mild panic ensued. Had I got it? Mrs R plied me with mint imperials to find if I still had a sense of taste. Positive reaction. And I can smell her casserole on the stove. It’s called a casserole because the daughters are coming for lunch, and that sounds better than beef stew.
But I digress. Covid is back in a new form. Variant XEC, part of the potentially-lethal Omicron family, has been detected in 10 per cent of new cases, and hospital admissions are rising. It’s worth a day or so of discomfort to avert the risk.
So much for the old enemy. But there’s also a new one – RSV, respiratory syncytial virus – for which there’s also a vaccine. Not in my arm, alas, because I’m too old.
Medical trials suggest that this jab, Abrysvo, has only limited effectiveness for the over 80s, partly because the very old don’t get involved in pilot studies.
In Silsden, we get a dose of Moderna. We’ve also had Astra Zeneca and Pfizer. The list reads like a box of fireworks for Bonfire Night.
