Gareth O'Callaghan: Vaccination is vital for people with chronic illness as covid and flu season returns

Gareth O'Callaghan on living with COPD, the return of flu and covid, and why vaccine misinformation — especially from RFK Jr — puts vulnerable people at risk

America’s health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr this week directed his health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to change its website’s long-term guidance to contradict the scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism. Picture: AP/Mark Schiefelbein

It’s that time of year again — known in our house as vaccine versus virus. Like a great Latin expression, as though a reminder of the mighty clash between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great near Pharsalus in Greece in 48BC. Inevitably — like Caesar did — the vaccine wins out.

It’s also time for my six-monthly medical NCT, which I can’t say I look forward to. Maybe it’s an age thing where you look back this time every year and remind yourself of the friends you once shared a pint with who have been felled in battle.