‘I Wanna New Drug’

Notes On The Desperate Wait For A Covid-19 Vaccine

In a recurring memory, I am standing in a line with my schoolmates at LaSalle Elementary School in Washington D.C.

There is a ‘Rubella’ (German Measles) outbreak looming and kids like us would pick it up like grass stains in the yard if we don’t get a vaccine.

This memory came back to me as soon as talk of a vaccine got serious in the world.

I can remember getting up in the line and taking my shot vaccine back then too. The vaccine was given to us in the school auditorium.

For days, when we knew we were getting the shot all everyone thought about was how much the needle would hurt.

Yet, when I got up for my shot from the nurse, there was no needle. There was some kind of gun like contraption.

They stuck it next to your arm and pulled the trigger. It was, I was later told, a booster. The ultimate protection.

It was all done by the D.C. Public Health Department. No one had to pay for anything. Hundreds of children all over the city got the vaccine. And rubella was stopped in its tracks.