This is such bad news. Downplaying that an airborne vascular virus that affects multiple organs and the immune system is only dangerous to so-called at-risk “vulnerable” people is a total bullshit response to the ongoing pandemic.

It also feeds into the THEM vs US mentality, with people erroneously believing that because they think they are fit and have a healthy immune system that Covid poses no risk to them, and then treating so-called “vulnerable” people with either pity or disdain while totally denying that Long Covid exists (until it happens to them) and behaving, well, selfishly.

I’m still not sure how much this year in Spain actually differs from the previous Covid booster shots (winter 2022/2023), as those were also available with a roll-out programme that started out with the elderly but eventually covered everyone. So it’s not clear if this year the usual Flu shot campaign will include getting an updated Covid booster, or if you will have to belong to one of the “target groups” to be eligible. In any case, the Covid boosters have never been mandatory and I don’t even think the initial vaccines were either, other than being required by certain industries.

The danger is if Covid vaccines and boosters are denied to people who want them simply because they don’t fit into this random and ever-changing criteria of who are perceived to need them. They don’t do this with the Flu jab. Anyone can get one. So why would it different with Covid? Why do you have to somehow prove you are eligible?? It’s not like most countries don’t have enough of the booster shots to go around.

I think that THIS particular sort of “official” disinformation/misinformation (see quote below, from the article) irks the most because it downplays the actual reality of SARS-CoV-2 and is still trying to convince people that it’s “just a cold”. It’s pretty clear by now that Covid is much more than a respiratory illness, let alone “just a cold” and it’s also clear that nobody develops immunity to Covid (just like with Flu, hence annual boosters!) and that the “let ‘er rip” global approach to Covid continues to enable new strains of this novel coronavirus to basically get better and better at making us sick and rendering previous vaccinations and boosters useless.

What if I haven’t been vaccinated against Covid for two years?

If they do not meet any condition of vulnerability and do not belong to the target groups, vaccination is not recommended for those under 60 years of age this year. “At this time, considering the epidemiological situation and the acquired immunity of the population, vaccination against Covid-19 in people not included in the target groups is not justified,” the ministry of health said. In other words, the vaccination two years ago and the infections of the disease during the last four and a half years have generated sufficient immunity not to make mass vaccination necessary.

We are ALL vulnerable. Denying or downplaying the need for an updated Covid vaccine booster to the general public in the midst of an ongoing pandemic is unconscionable. Honestly, all of this makes me sick. I only hope it doesn’t end up actually making me (or you!) sick too.