Talking Shop: With a gun to the head

“It makes my heart sick

when I remember all

the good words and

the broken promises.”

—Chief Joseph

The Chief sure knew what he was talking about. Today, so do I. This is going to be a classic debate, one that is sure to beg that indeterminate question—what’s the price of life, especially for those who don’t quite drop dead? Well, their lives have changed irretrievably and they are forced to re-invent their remaining stay in the world. Do let me know when you divvy up this ‘life equals this much money’ figure in INR, for I want to charge that price. And the number better be bloody high, for I do lay a princely price on my once-pristine existence... As do millions of others, all of whom are wondering just what hit them and why.

Three years ago, 8 billion people woke up on an otherwise normal day with a gun pointing at their head. Toe the line quietly, take the vaccine jab and you will have continued life and good health, they were told. After some see-sawing and belligerence, most complied. Really, never before had so much been done to so many, with such incentivization and fear-mongering, and so little culpability and guilt acceptance. I am speaking of the near-forced administration of the Coronavirus jab, globally. Back then, it was a strange world, when kidnappers held the world to ransom and won hands down, because the kidnapped were all but begging to be made guinea pigs for lab testing—such was the fear instilled. Today, some of the pigs a.k.a. lab-rats are dropping dead. Who do we blame?

The doubts persist

Fear and mental tick-tock were always lurking in the minds of those who lined up for the vaccine, a hastily put-together medical miracle that promised to escort the world through the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s what allowed the pricks to rule. And rule the pricks did, as 6 billion needles and syringes found their way into human arms and buttocks, plastic and steel squealing in ardour as hitherto hidden human skin and body parts were willingly exposed. Little did the recipients of the largesse know that while the use-and-throw needle-syringe pair would make it to dustbins post-haste, it would be a while before some of the use-and-throw lab rats were carried to cremation grounds and funeral homes on the final journey.

I am not an alarmist, but admit that I do gingerly eye the panic button when hard-nosed and button-eyed pharmaceutical giants start making apologetic sounds and reaching for their strapped-to-the-holster cheque books, willingly coughing up millions to settle what could turn into class action suits. A beginning was recently made by UK pharma firm AstraZeneca, which partnered three years back with Oxford University to cook up a life-saving vaccine thunderstorm when the pandemic was at its perceived worst. Their wannabe meghdoots rushed around informing the panic-stricken world that divine intervention had arrived to save the day. Today, it turns out that this might not be true after all.

Why? Well, because AstraZeneca has itself admitted that there could be some side-effects of the vaccine. Side-effects? Well, they are part and parcel of every good thing in life (like a wife; and may the Lord save me from her wrath after this revelation!). Anyway, since we are now smiling on this bright, Monday morning, let’s look at the un-torpid side of things.

Blooming side-effects

I am no scientist and had to reach out to Google to truly understand just how deadly the after-shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and its vaccine(s) are. The answer: quite deadly; akin to a simmer that can turn into an inferno within human bodies in an instant. One of the ‘rare’ offshoots of the vaccine is something called TTS (Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome). Cutting out the legalese and technical spiel, TTS can cause thrombosis formation (blood clots), along with thrombocytopenia (low platelet count). The moot point is this can lead to myocardial infarction (heart attack) and brain haemorrhage, leaving you quite dead.

To be truthful and fair to AstraZeneca and other pharma firms, the world did know that the vaccine could have side-effects. Do remember that the authorities worldwide had anyway scared the living bejesus out of people cowering inside their homes, many of whom were waiting for international hordes of ‘yamraajs’ to arrive and cart them away. What gets my goat, though, is that pharmaceutical firms have shifted their position—they had earlier said: “We do not accept that TTS is caused by the vaccine at a generic level.” Today, that has changed to: “It is admitted that the vaccine can, in very rare cases, cause TTS.”

Ahem, do I need to add that it was this AstraZeneca vaccine that was manufactured under license by the Serum Institute of India in our country and sold under the brand-name Covishield, administered in 175 crore doses during the overzealous vaccination programme? And that more than half of our population now have progenies of this vaccine merrily scooting about in their bloodstreams? I should know, for I am one of them.

The devil is grinning

Indeed, the urgency with which authorities around the world pushed the vaccine and provided incentives to spur offtake is cause for raised eyebrows. In Hong Kong, for instance, a COVID-19 jab could win you a Tesla car in a lottery. In France and Athens, it could be your ticket to a bar or restaurant. In Prague, you could get an iPhone. Some offered apartments in exotic locales, gold bars, diamond Rolexes, even $100,000 shopping sprees. Not to be left behind, Russia’s Vladimir Putin gave away snowmobiles.

If Russia incentivized, the US had to too—the authorities handed out cash or four-packs of beer to those who exposed their arm or backside. Back home in India, free vaccines were promised to people, though those who could afford it were magnanimously allowed to pay between Rs 750 to Rs 2,000 per jab. However, there are also countries where a vaccine shot was the only way to hang on to your job. Net-net, a carrot-and-stick approach was adopted to get the world inoculated.

India recently reported its first alleged COVID-19 vaccine-related death, and the parents of the deceased are learnt to be planning to take Serum Institute to court for answers. In the meantime, vaccination continues, though the ardour and fever pitch are missing now, as is the photograph and victorious hoardings that accompanied certificates of compliance. That, however, is only good for photo opportunities and malevolent intentions.

What needs to be remembered for a lifetime is the fear that ruled over the world, people sanitizing every exposed part of their body repeatedly while some gasped for oxygen, and the bitter-stoic memories of snaking lines of bodies waiting outside crematoriums and burial grounds. To be remembered are the lies that brought an entire race to its knees, with people of all classes, creed, sizes and colour cowering and praying. “Fake promises and fake people killed old me,” said one called ‘The Learner’. Too bad that ‘The Learner’ only learnt after he departed this Earth, as did millions upon millions of others.

The writer is a veteran journalist and communications specialist. He can be reached on narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal