Is It Inflation? Is It a Vaccine?

Maybe it's just me, but the two words I hear more and more have been "inflation" and "vaccine." Both have confirmed something that I've learned about words and meanings. 

Inflation has been a real doozy for years now. As a result of the 2008 crisis, the Fed and the government created $trillions to avoid a financial collapse. A lot of smart people predicted we'd have serious inflation. It never happened. To this day, I don't know of any simple, settled explanation for this. But there it is. Those who swore that Fed "printing" of money was and would be the cause of inflation were left scratching their heads.

What about prices - specifically prices for the stuff most of us buy. For years I've noticed prices go up and down at the butcher shop I frequent. Many times when pork chops jumped 5% or 10% I've thought, "Inflation's comin'." The prices fall back down. These days, though, prices in the supermarket do seem to be pressing higher on more than a few products. Will this be the start of inflation - at least of what we might call "price inflation"?

Then again, for years now, even prices that haven't risen have risen. If you like potato chips you know that the bag of chips you bought 10 years ago doesn't have as many ounces of chips as it did then. But the price hasn't fallen. Isn't that some kind of inflation? 

We'll leave the definition of inflation for now. Even if we try to make a case about what it really means, lots of folks will disagree. And, heck, it's the weekend and I've got more to do than get sucked into a dispute over the definition of inflation. Maybe some other time. That takes us to "vaccine."

The word "vaccine" never seemed particularly complex in the past. You get these so you don't get things like polio, small pox, chicken pox, measles, etc. OK, so kids today get a lot more than some of us adults did. And, oh, a group of us have objected to that increase in vaccines. The claim is they do more harm than good. We'll leave that one alone for now. 

Instead, let's move on to that "vaccine" most of us have been hearing and talking about lately: the "vaccines" that claim to protect us from COVID. In fact, in recent weeks, the use of this word has virtually replaced the usual phrases people once used as part of a greeting when you meet them. Instead of saying - as we're wont to do here in New York - "How ya doon'?" I 've been getting, "Did you get vaccinated yet," or some variation thereof. Do you find this as irritating or annoying as I do?

Let's set aside the issue of medical privacy for now (although it is an issue). How is this even interesting? Why would I care whether you got the jab or not? 

I'm guessing some folks believe that it's important that the well-publicized "80%" that governments and the media have been touting as necessary for life to return to "normal" might have something to do with it. Or maybe the individual who asks thinks that if you haven't been jabbed you might be some kind of "Spreader Pariah." (I just made up that phrase. It's not something I've read or heard - yet.) Or maybe they ask because someone asked them, who asked that person, who...well, you know, the old daisy chain where people mindlessly repeat what they've heard.

Whatever the motivation for asking the question, it's being asked. 

So what's the connection with definitions? Just this: It really is questionable whether the stuff that's being jabbed should be referred to as a "vaccine." You may have heard something along these lines. But I have to say that the more I read about the subject, the more certain I become that "vaccine" is a misnomer when it comes to the gunk they're injecting into our arms. 

I'll just leave it at that. I'm not inclined to getting into a debate or trying of convince anyone of anything right now. I'm listening to a special broadcast of a past special gala at the Met Opera featuring Anna Netrebko and other first-rate singers performing Puccini. But before settling in to this treat, one more point.

While I've been convinced that calling these jabs "vaccinations" is inaccurate, I don't think it will matter. These days, words are redefined to mean anything anyone wants. So I suspect that even it can be simply and definitively shown that "vaccine" should not apply to these jabs, the government and the media will simply ignore the evidence and insist that they are. End of story.

That's world we live in now, folks.