I am writing this because I don’t think there is any sensible, middle-ground opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine programme. Because ordinary people who simply choose not to have the vaccine have to speak in hushed whispers to one another for fear of being shouted down by angry pro-vaccine zealots, for fear of being quietly disowned by people they have known for years, or for fear of being associated with conspiracy theorists who think there are microchips in the vaccine.
So I am writing this for you, friend. For the person who simply is reluctant to have the vaccine for their own sensible reasons. For me, that is because I intensely distrust the government, both local and national, because I know they do not have our best interests at heart. By “our”, I mean the proles, the workers, the people who are not rich, the people who are less than not rich, the people who aspire for a different kind of world and a different kind of life than the one we are all incentivised to work ourselves to death for. All you have to do is look at the inherently unequal power structures in society to know it is true that the state abhors us. All you have to do is be poor and have any contact with any of the branches of the state to know that we are less than cared for. All you have to do is have a very important job but get paid next-to-nothing for it, to discover that in this world, this world that “claps for you”, this world thinks it owns your body just because you look after its nan.