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Everyone’s talking about vaccines—getting them, wanting them, waiting for them, comparing them, and feeling their side effects. The shots offer Americans life-saving immunity during the fourth surge of the coronavirus. But they also just represent something new to talk about, my colleague Ian Bogost points out.
With that in mind, here are a few suggested conversation starters for your next gab about the jab.
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The vaccine line is an illusion. Some people are stretching the truth in order to get a poke. Experts told Olga Khazan that it’s better to wait.
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We need to talk about the AstraZeneca vaccine. European vaccine regulators have “been faced with something of a nightmare scenario for vaccine communication,” Hilda Bastian argues.
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D.C. is failing at the vaccination game. Statehood could fix that, the journalist and resident Timothy Noah argues.
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The mRNA technology that the vaccines use could change the world. Its potential applications go far beyond COVID-19, Derek Thompson points out.
What to read if … you’re processing the news that Representative Matt Gaetz is reportedly the subject of a sex-trafficking inquiry:
