I'll be rolling up my sleeve to celebrate my birthday, writes Jo Raphael. Photo / NZME
I'll be rolling up my sleeve to celebrate my birthday, writes Jo Raphael. Photo / NZME
OPINION
I'm not a fan of needles.
Most of us will have been jabbed with needles in our lifetimes.
I don't like having my blood taken. I have terrible veins. If the person taking my blood is not a highly-trained phlebotomist who does the procedure hundreds of times a daythen it usually takes two or three goes to get a good vein, and even then I'm pretty stingy when it comes to filling a vial.
The last time blood was taken from my arm, the resulting bruises from a blown vein made my skin look like an inkblot.
I cope with the anxiety by turning my head away and closing my eyes and pretending there's no needle.
There is one needle I'm looking forward to, however.
Today I turn 42, and by virtue of the year I was born, I was able to book my first Covid-19 vaccine as a person over 40, due to take place next week. Getting a vaccine may be an unusual way to celebrate a birthday, but it does mark a significant milestone.
It means that I'm now part of the solution - albeit a solution the Government is still trying to figure out - that will hopefully get the country back to some sense of normalcy.
This current outbreak in our community only brings home the urgency for me as I realised that I was unvaccinated at the time we went into lockdown and that scared me.
What scares me more is the misinformation and deliberate disinformation being spread about vaccines causing some people to become vaccine-hesitant or down-right anti-vaccination.
These people spreading this rubbish are at best selfish, and at worst dangerous.
By all means, ask questions, read, talk to people and make your own choice.
But base that choice on sources and information that are reliable, based on scientific facts.
Don't get sucked into the anti-vax rabbit holes by people who can't back up their mad claims.
There are a few in circulation now that people should understand including that vaccines don't work. False. Just ask survivors of smallpox and polio.
The Covid-19 vaccine makes you magnetic. False. Where are all the people walking around with paperclips stuck to them?
The Covid-19 vaccine makes women infertile. False. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists concluded the vaccines are safe for pregnant women, women thinking of becoming pregnant and breastfeeding women.
The Government wants to put a microchip in you to track you. False. Microchips are far too big to be drawn up into a hypodermic needle.
An oldie but a baddie - vaccines cause autism. This, in my view, is perhaps the most damaging myth that has been spread. This has been widely debunked and has been found to be "unethical and not factual" according to the Lancet - where it was first published. The doctor responsible has since lost his licence to practise.
Don't just believe me, do your own research.
Be wary of outrageous claims and ask yourself why people are trying to convince you of them - what are their motives, and more importantly, can they back them up with sound science?
