Social Vaccines

Soon after I was vaccinated, one shot on each arm, I jokingly imagined the biological warfare going on in my body. That sense of humor didn’t last long before the physical reaction to the vaccines quickly aggravated within 24 hours when my body showed symptoms including intense muscle soreness, high fever with a headache, and dizziness. For a moment, the conditions were so unbearable that I couldn't rid myself of the thought that I might not be able to survive the night. Fortunately, I woke up with much alleviation of the pain and, more importantly, with the realization that there's an essentially social aspect to this procedure.

The immunization was required by the school as an inevitable part of matriculation. Owing to the fact that a second dose of MMR and DTaP is not mandatory in the health system in Taiwan, I will have to get the extra injection so that the positivity of antigens in my blood is commensurate with the standards acknowledged by CDC. Just as I was absorbed in the psychedelic drowsiness, an idea flashed upon me that in order to enter the educational institute, I came across its intersection with the medical one where I was subject to such means of monitoring as vaccines. From a broader view, I get a clear picture of the permeation of power all the way from the U.S. government’s attempt to regulate immigration, through the departmental control of disease and a university’s implementation, to the very end of my visceral repulsion in body, which physically embodies that fluid power relation. That is to say, flowing in my blood stream is the state power. The strong reaction may well be a sign of counteractive mechanism in the face of confrontational social force. The imaginary warfare is ultimately no less a biological one than a social one. The “innermost” locus of the action is my body, where the inner environment was modified for what at first glance appeared to be a medical concern. My immune system had been developed in accordance to the immunization policies of Taiwan’s Ministry of Health. The drastic shift of antibodies is the exponent not only of health control but also of social control exactly because the vaccinations would have never been necessary had it not been for my intent to study in the U.S. and, thus, for the conformity to the policies issued by another sovereign.