Well whaddya know?

Over the last year or so there has been plenty of coverage in the media about the issue of virus-deniers and/or vaccination sceptics and their impact upon the worldwide efforts of Governments and scientists to counter, restrict and then control the advance of the Covid-19 virus pandemic, including the apparently never-ending succession of new variants it develops in an attempt to perpetuate itself in defiance of every measure that the human race throws at it.

These issues have their camp followers in the form of accusations of “fake news”; constant advice not to believe everything/anything that can be found on the internet; the alleged particular reluctance of the BAME community – or sections of it – to trust vaccinations; and the apparently widely-held beliefs either that the virus doesn’t exist (or isn’t harmful) and/or that the whole so-called pandemic is in fact nothing more or less than a concerted attempt by “Governments around the globe” to reduce us all to little more than slaves by introducing laws and regulations via which they will be able to know far more than should be necessary by any yardstick about every individual and ultimately control our every move and thought.

For the record – and as a declaration of interest or disclaimer – along the spectrum running between, on the one hand, blindly believing anything & everything our lords and masters tell us without question and, on the other, buying into every paranoid conspiracy theory that any lunatic can dream up in his back bedroom in Isleworth and then peddle on the world wide web, I need to state here that your author is further towards the former than the latter.

Be that as it may, yesterday I had a weird experience – my first one-to-one encounter with a genuine vaccination “refuser”.

Earlier this week I had occasion to request a call-out by a local electrician (whom I shall call here “Hans”) to my “gaff” in order to repair and/or render back in working order the lighting system in my kitchen.

Hans, whom I estimate is somewhere in his late thirties, comes from one of those foreign countries either in the EU or nearly so – it could be anywhere from Poland to the Ukraine – arrived shortly before 5.00pm last night. We know each other reasonably well because we exchange pleasantries every time I go past his shop not far down the road and he’s visited me previously on an electrical matter.

As he came in with his toolbox I noted that he had one of those pale blue face masks hanging under his chin. By way of opening chit-chat I announced that I’d had both my Covid-19 jabs but – if he’d prefer it – I could easily put on my own, superior and cloth, face mask for our encounter.

He said he wasn’t bothered one way or the other.

I then asked him if he’d had his jabs. He replied in the negative. This didn’t bother me in the slightest. I assumed that the reason(s) for him not yet being jabbed were entirely down to his relative youth and/or a practicality of some kind.

I would have left the subject there but he was happy to continue the line of conversation and, as he opened up his ladder in order to investigate the ceiling lights, mentioned almost as an aside that he had no faith in the vaccine.

I was interested enough to probe for more, given the amount of persuasive propaganda that has been put out by the Government about how important for the nation’s health it is that everyone should be vaccinated – which thrust I personally accept as gospel.

It turned out that Hans is not in the camp that believes the Covid-19 virus itself did not exist and/or is a hoax deliberately perpetrated by world governments, presumably as a means to controlling the human race.

However, it soon became apparent that I was talking to a rabid vaccination-sceptic.

Amongst his claims were that in the USA attempts to vaccinate children had been stopped because an early (small) initiative had resulted in several deaths and long-term adverse symptoms.

There was no proof that the vaccination worked.

The “validation” process on the vaccinations being deployed by the Western World had been rushed and inadequate.

The numbers of adverse reactions to the vaccinations was much higher than reported and was being deliberately kept secret.

To finish, Hans asserted that neither Matt Hancock, nor any other member of the Government, nor any of their families, had yet been jabbed.

I asked from where he had got his information – the internet? A mate down the pub?

Neither of the above. He had been talking with a fellow countryman who was some sort of medical expert – here I’m afraid that I did not catch the speciality concerned. For all I know it could have been neuroscience, immunology, tropical diseases or even physiotherapy. All I can register here is that it was plainly in something that Hans found completely authoritative.

In response I made various noises “pushing back” the other way.

I was broadly content to take the Government’s restrictions and advice at face value – why would it be in their interests to lie … they’d surely be found out and called to account at some point?

I also thought I’d seen Mat Hancock in the newspapers (and on TV) unrolling his shirt sleeve and proudly receiving his jab a few days ago.

But I left it there – I saw little to be gained by “chewing the cud” with a vaccination-sceptic because these days, once someone makes their mind up, it seems no amount of evidence or discussion will get them to change their mind.

I had more important matters to attend to.

As soon as he departed I’d be uncorking my gin bottle and having a large G & T before settling in to watch the BBC 1 Six O’ Clock News.