My nurse was pissed.

I went in this morning to receive my booster shot and the nurse must have recognized me as the guy from the newspaper, kind of my nom de plume.

She said she had called one of my reporters last week and gave him an earful.

Envisioning her give me the the shot like Anthony Perkins gave numerous shots to Janet Leigh in "Psycho," I asked in a calming voice, "What's wrong?"

She was angry at all those failing to get shots at all, let alone a booster.

"We could have been done with this long ago," she said.

I thanked her for her work and we kept talking while she went over my paperwork and prepped me for my shot.

She's going to be unable to see relatives during Thanksgiving and Christmas because of their unwillingness to get the the vaccination. She hears stories about fellow nurses in hospital working 80 hours a week.

I told her a story shared by a friend whose wife is a COVID nurse. She listens to families talk about the "hoax" of the virus while their loved one is intubated.

We have hundreds of thousands dead in the United States, millions. Those are the facts.

Yet we live in the post-factual world.

I told her about some of the columns I've written and how I support the work of her and her colleagues and will continue to do so.

There have been plenty of stories from anti-vaxxers who caught the virus, barely lived and urged others to get the shot.

I get the entire personal liberty thing. I've always had a little libertarian thing in me -- note the small L.

But there's also responsibility. I have a daughter whose going to win major Hollywood awards and I have dibs as her first date. I work with people who have health issues. 

There is something called the common good. In terms of choice, I choose to be part of that.

My nurse's anger abated as we talked and before she jabbed me.

I waited my 15 minutes and started to take off when one of the two check-in people asked if I was feeling OK. "Emotionally, no," I said. "Otherwise yes."

The vaccinated people and my nurse laughed.

At least I could offer them that.

Peace and vaccinations unto all of you my brothers and sisters.