COVID-19 and Polio Vaccinations: A Generation Between

 Deadly, debilitating pandemics and mass vaccinations are not new to my age group

I got jabbed today. My first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shot was at a Meijer in-store pharmacy. I signed up for their waiting list and was contacted less than 24 hours before I was able to roll up my sleeve.

There was one weird and wonderful thing about the experience: 

I stood in line with people just in my own 60-64 age group—peers born near the end of the Baby Boom generation (1946-1964) who were too young to participate firsthand in the upheavals of the 1960s. I thought about that while we waited to be vaccinated by professionals too young to know our story.

We’re older, but not old enough to have marched or protested or been drafted for Vietnam. I turned nine years old in 1968. By the time I turned 18, there was not even a draft to register for (or resist) and protests were a thing of the past—or so we thought at the time. In 1977, The Beatles were long gone, Springsteen was becoming the new Boss, The Ramones and Earth, Wind & Fire were emergent, and Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Queen, The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, and Bob Seeger seemed to dominate pop music.

Having lived our childhoods through the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam, and Watergate, our age group inherently distrusts authority, isn’t surprised at the worst, and yet still believes the best is possible.

There we stood together, the early sixties group, waiting to roll up our sleeves again. Deadly, debilitating pandemics and mass vaccinations are not new to us. We did this as small children for the polio vaccine. We’re doing it again with great hope for all.