A ‘shot for a shot’ might just be the shot to increase jab numbers

A shot for a shot might just be the shot in the arm that jab number increases need.

Peter Patter cartoon for 9/7/21

Having never been one for good timing, it was only after I’d had the jab that the government announced that incentives will be put in place to encourage Aussies to step up and get the needle.

I’ll be filthy if the incentives are not retrospective.

Although, with my luck my “incentive” would be free tickets to the third State of Origin – seated in the New South Wales Blues section.

With uptake of people seeking to have the jab being so slack, the government obviously feels it needs to use incentives to get people to get the vaccination which is so important to getting the country back to some form of normalcy.

However, it really should have to come to this.

While I understand that getting the jab is about as popular within the community as a St George Illawarra Dragons team barbecue, but getting the jab is the community thing to do.

And, Australia wouldn’t be the first country to offer incentives.

I’ve read where one city in Europe was offering a “shot for a shot” to increase vaccination numbers.

The participant just goes in, gets the jab, and then is handed a shot of his/her preferred shot of whiskey or rum or whatever.

I reckon that would be good for Australia where it would be a Jab for a Jag (Jagermeister that is).

And, Jab for a Jager-Bomb does have a ring to it.

It could also give new meaning to the old tequila game of “lick, sip, suck!” when the drinker is required to lick salt off one’s hand, sip down the tequila and then suck on a lemon, presumably to masquerade the shocking taste of the tequila.

Suddenly, in the Land of Covid it would be lick, sip, suck, jab!

Although, the jab could replace the need for the lemon, if a sharp prick to the arm can’t get one’s mind of the taste of tequila than the lemon is superfluous.

Come to think of it, if the government really wants to get the jab numbers up, why don’t they send groups of medics armed with vaccine filled syringes to our pubs and clubs?

After a few drinks, most people aren’t feeling any pain anyway so what better time to roll up their sleeve and inject an arm or two with Covid vaccine?

You can just see people waking with a hangover the next morning.

“Boy, that was a top night.

“I’m not sure what I got up to but at one point I must have done something wrong because for some reason I felt a real prick.

“And, for some reason this morning my arm is bloody sore.”

There, in no time, 80 per cent herd immunity.

However, as one having now had the jab I can say with some authority that there’s nothing to worry about.

And, those from my era like to live on the edge.

None of this mamby pamby Pfizer or Moderna for us, bring on the UK produced AstraZeneca and bugger the blood clots.

I had the jab on Sunday morning and, though it’s only the first jab, to date there appears to be no side-effects.

Although, after the Sunday morning jab I was meeting some mates for Sunday lunch and I did get some strange looks from them when I forwent my usual Sunday roast and pot of beer and ordered a pint of lager with chips and vinegar.

I also had the strange urge to go and get the Union Jack tattooed on my chest and Mother England on my arm and head off to the nearest football (see soccer) match for an afternoon of chanting, singing and fighting.

But, apart from being caught inadvertently humming Land of Hope and Glory during lunch, it was as if I hadn’t had the vaccine at all.

However, it is important that we all get vaccinated if we’re going to get this place back to some kind of normal.

The sooner we all have the jab, the sooner these lockdowns will no longer have to be imposed, the sooner we can throw those ridiculous masks away for good and the sooner the Dragons players can forget about Covid rule breaking team barbecues and get back to winning on the field.

Or is that asking too much?