vaxhole
It means this: "One who has been fully vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus and brags about it."
You may have encountered such people yourself..."Oh yes, I have had both vaccinations. Had my last one on Tuesday. No adverse reactions at all. I feel I am wearing a suit of armour now. That pesky virus can't get me now. I am 100% safe. I feel so good. Oh, by the way, have you had your first jab yet?"
The author of this blog has only had one jab so far. He will be receiving his next one on May 5th. No doubt on that day I will become a fully-fledged vaxhole too.
And while we are into bragging, let me pause to boast about Britain's brilliant vaccination programme that has seen significant falls in COVID cases, new hospitalisations and deaths. In the last twenty four hours COVID only claimed 19 British lives and yesterday it was only 58. We seem to be getting something very right after so many mistakes in the past year, mistakes that have led to a total of 126,592 deaths.
I wonder if there's a new word for someone who boasts about his country's vaccination success? Perhaps - an asshole? Oh no - quick research tells me that this word already exists -
A person who is intentionally cruel, obnoxious and heartless. Assholes are most often
male. A female who follows these traits is referred to as a bitch. Assholes can
take any form. Knowing this allows you to spot assholes at any time or place.
Our vaccination programme has been so professional as you say.
ReplyDeleteAll credit to our admin workers and nurses who got their measly wage rise from those, er, asses in our asinine government.
A young usher in Glasgow's Armadillo, where I received my vaccine said, *Just walk straight ahead, darling and the nurse will see ye right away.*
Nobody has called me darling in decades. Must be my recent beard which has made me look biblically venerable like my hero Noam Chomsky (YouTube 2021).
I should add that the usher was a young woman.
Haggerty
P.S. My apologies to asses, donkeys and mules, noble creatures who bear no comparison to Boris and his government of turnip-heads.
Oh, the usher was a young woman was she? I had imagined it would be a young man in tight leather trousers and a primrose coloured T-shirt. Whatever happened to the word "usherette"?
DeleteUsherette !
DeleteTasker could get a post out of usherette. He is like an old Keith Waterhouse column in The Daily Mirror. Alan Brien said Waterhouse had a magic tunnel through which he went back to his pre-War West Riding childhood.
My ideal cinema usherette would be June Ritchie of A Kind of Loving fame.
They released on DVD a black and white movie she did with Ian Hendry.
*This Is My Street* is shot in East London and has a great sense of place.
Jean Ritchie is still with us as is Frederic Raphael, the Classics scholar who won an Oscar for his screenplay Darling (1965) with Julie Christie. He wrote a witty book on Kubrick, Eyes Wide Open.
Haggerty
Read and digested my good man.
DeleteThe virus seems to have many tricks. I hope that with all the vaccinations the pandemic will end. I think we will have cases for quite some time.
ReplyDeleteWe are optimistic in Britain right now but it could still go pear-shaped. This virus is like The Devil.
DeleteI love this one - mostly because the one friend and I'm using that term loosely at the moment - that I've been forced into a bubble with has turned into a vaxhole - big time! She somehow managed to get her first jab over a week ago and even though I see a cardiologist every 6 months and have two autoimmune diseases I still can't even get a tentative appointment. Did I mention that she's also a hopeless hypochondriac! Even though she knows I'm upset about this (I still go out to work and have to travel on public transit while she has been on long term "disability" for years and can just stay home) every phone call begins with her asking if she told me that she had her vaccination and she hasn't had any side effects so I should be fine - talk about insensitive!
ReplyDeleteSorry - just needed a bit of a rant today
And it was a well-justified rant Margie. It's nice to have friends like that!
DeleteThe trick is to turn a rant into a happy high holiday.
DeleteIf we all did this there would be no road rage, no social media vitriol.
*Passover with Mayim Bialik/ You Know How I Know?*
My Jewish Learning. 17 March 2021.
Happy Days Haggerty
We could all be living in La La Land, happy as Larry.
DeleteI think a vaxhole is an antivaxer, personally. I get sick of hearing about hoaxes and how dangerous the vaccine is, and about the big amorphous 'they' who is trying to control everyone.
ReplyDeleteThat crossed my mind too. "Vaxhole" could have other meanings - including a literal "hole" in which vaccines that are out-of-date are buried.
Deleteor the literal hole in which antivaxers themselves wind up buried in. Unfortunately though, this foolish thinking seems to affect the people around them more than it affects the actual antivaxers.
DeleteAn antivaxer could be a sweeping brush - if you see what I mean.
DeleteAfter GB looking so bad in the eyes of many of mishandling of the crisis, it is to all the countries credit that the vaccination programme has been so good, with remarkable numbers vaccinated. Get politicians out of it, and let the bureaucracy do what it does well.
ReplyDeleteYes Andrew but B.Johnson and his cabinet are subtly trying to steal much of the credit.
DeleteHere's a word from the computing industry to be adopted by vaccine refusers who wish to denigrate those who have have obediently had the jab: Vaxen.
ReplyDeleteI have some other pre-existing terms for such people such as - idiot, fool, moron.
DeleteIn contrast, how embarrassingly slow and disorganised the vaccination campaign is moving in my country! Right now, we are in the middle of the third wave. After my home town had an icidence value (ratio of new infections per day per 100,000 inhabitants) already as low as 26, we have shot back up to 115 or something. It is worrying enough that some parts of Germany are enforcing curfews again.
ReplyDeleteIn this The European Union has a lot to answer for.
DeleteOh dear. I must be a semi-vaxhole then as I have told everyone about my first jab.
ReplyDeleteHeavens! You even blogged about it!
DeleteP.S. So did I.
you're just half vaxed.
DeleteI would rather be half-vaxed than half-witted.
DeleteYou and me both. We're still waiting. We've heard nothing.
DeleteI thought Vaxhole was a posh word for a Vauxhall. Rather like sex is what posh people get their coal in. " I'll have two sex of coal please my good man."
ReplyDeleteHa-ha! You should be a stand-up comedian Dave!
DeleteLOL -- I thought of Vauxhall too!
DeleteHad to smile at this new word! Where do we get the T shirt?
ReplyDeleteIt's true, when I check through emails, and remember recent phone calls, I've been asked on every single occasion if I've had my jabs!
Up until last Monday the answer was "No", and I contented myself that I would have to continue to remain ever vigilant. Imagine my surprise last Monday afternoon when I received a phone call (at 5:30) from our local Health Centre, asking me if I could be there in ten minutes! I didn't need to ask why, but knew I couldn't make it so quickly and had to waste time explaining that I lived at least 15 minutes away, and it was rush hour. We agreed 20 minutes and I just made it! The building was empty save for a security guard and a nurse waiting to give me my jab. It was obvious that my dose was destined for someone who hadn't turned up. No idea why I was singled out for such special treatment as my age group isn't due to be called until sometime in May. However I'm not complaining, and thank whoever didn't turn up. I have to phone next month for an appointment for my second jab, and in view of the comments above, I shall now refrain from asking everyone the same question!
Whooa! Hurray for CG! She has had her first jab! Did it hurt? I had mine in my arm, where did you have yours?
DeleteIn my arm too - so not anywhere I'd be embarrassed to mention!
DeleteThat's funny. I had a mental picture of you being vaccinated in a buttock.
DeleteI, too, thought a vaxhole might be someone who refuses to get the vaccine and thinks that they call contain chips so that Bill Gates can control them.
ReplyDeleteFor whatever reason I felt no reason whatsoever to brag about getting the vaccine. I was glad to get it but had nothing to do with it except to make the appointments and show up.
Normal people are so relieved when they get their shots. I guess that delight might sometimes be mistaken for bragging.
DeleteUsherette has gone the way of the dodo and the passenger pigeon, as have stewardess (flight attendant), authoress ‘(author), and actress (actor). Oh, and we mustn’t forget bassinet (baritone). I’m joking about that last one.
ReplyDeleteOuld lads such as we are put out on Mondays like flea-bitten sofas for the binmen to pick up.
DeleteDon't let anyone hear us say Etiquette, Briquette, or Lazarette.
Flannelette, Satinette, Stockinette, Jockette, Soubrette, belong in the world of Emile Zola's Nana.
As for Nymphette, don't even go there, chum.
Now I'm off to the Kitchenette to make a cup of hot Chocolette.
Haggerty
Afterwards will you smoke a cigarette or a big, fat Cuban cigar?
DeleteI quit smoking after reading a little book on the respiratory system.
DeleteOur trachea, bronchi, lungs and alveoli are triumphs of evolution.
How could I ruin them with cigarettes and cigars?
That was decades ago.
It is sad beyond words to read about Derek Draper as he fights Covid-19, infections having left holes in his lungs.
*He has disappeared back into himself,* said his wife Kate Garraway, *and glimmers of consciousness are fleeting and few.*
Since the third national lockdown Kate and the children are unable to visit.
Haggerty
I'm sure in a few weeks' time I'll join the ranks too. It will be so wonderful to have the confidence to get out and about again.
ReplyDeleteFunny - when I first saw the picture I thought it would be referring anti-vax types not vaccine braggers! I guess it can work either way
ReplyDeleteThe whole vax thing is so fraught right now. If you have the vax and mention it, it's interpreted as not reading the room. If you don't want it you're viewed as lower than something stuck on a shoe. If you do have it and don't say anything, people wonder if you're safe to be around.
ReplyDeleteThis post is a bit worrying to me. Not everyone who refuses the jab is a moron. Some people have valid reasons not to have it but will be labelled by small minds who see no further than their noses.
ReplyDeleteBriony
x
I have learned that talking about vaccinations is like talking about politics -- likely to lead to uncomfortable situations. (And vaccines ARE political now, after all.) Best to just stay mum!
ReplyDeleteI never thought of the gender ramifications of the word "asshole," but it's true -- I don't often hear women called assholes. Interesting.