COVID-19 vaccine take–up in Blackburn is expected to be well below the national average. This has prompted an outrageous suggestion which may well be able to entice some of its citizens into becoming willing recipients.
An out of the ordinary inducement has been put forward to open up a pub where only vaccine recipients will be allowed inside this hostelry and only vaccinated staff will be able to work behind its bar. This means wearing masks and social distancing rules will not be necessary anymore.
Similar proposals have been suggested about setting up smoker’s pubs. Here staff sign a pledge to say they smoke and only punters who do the same are allowed in the premises. This idea is still up in the air, but with all the euphoria surrounding these new vaccines and an end to COVID-19, anything is possible.
Those who are scared of needles may have their own point of view. But to some people though, this vaccine is just a shot in the dark. They are worried about it being used as a way of carrying out extra surveillance of ordinary citizens. There seems to be paranoia about DNA being taken and tracker chips being injected into recipients. We are being reassured that if this pub does open, management promise the only kind of chips allowed on their menu will be potato ones.
Corona Virus vaccines themselves have not been without their own controversies. Rather than working together with the goal of one universal remedy being available for everybody, different countries and pharmaceutical companies have struck out for their own COVID-19 cures. No doubt stopping the Corona Virus from killing would lead to making a killing of a financial kind to whoever cornered the worldwide vaccine market.
Along with Britain’s Oxford vaccine, there are two others from America, although one of these is part German. Along with a Chinese version, we also have Russia’s Sputnik jab. There is ambiguity here over whether it has been properly tested. Western scientists believe it is only effective when injected with an umbrella. So it could be a very long shot.
News about opening a vaccine recipient’s pub could go viral. It might lead to a rich vein of income for our local pub scene; the kind of cash injection Blackburn town centre really needs following this hated lockdown. All we need to do now is come up with a name for the place.
Suggestions have included: Royal Toke, Michael Cocaine, Camel and Needle, Fix and Grapes. And appropriately for Blackburn – Stepmother’s Jag.
