Over the past few days I have been devolving into a lower state of humanity.

Let me stop your wandering mind right there and assure you that I'm not considering - and have not ever seriously considered - entering politics.

I don't think my stomach could ever handle politics as anything but an outsider looking in.

And no, I'm not thinking of quitting journalism for a job in PR - or "media relations" for those who prefer to use titles like "sanitary engineer" for the guy who drives the garbage truck.

I don't think I could handle a job in which reality is slipperier than a quantum universe, and the truth is more elusive than a Higgs boson.

The garbage truck driver knows what he's hauling, and isn't afraid to admit it.

My devolution has been into the depths of a nasty little cold - a physiological state more repugnant than the tissue papers piling up in my garbage can (alongside all those PR flaks' "press releases"). It is a state into which most normal human beings descend once or twice a year for a few days at a time.

I'm hoping, at least, that this is just another one of those couple-of-days-of-misery colds, a minor rhinovirus inconvenience, and not a full-blown attack of influenza.

Truth is, it could easily be the latter. I have been tardy in obtaining my flu shots this season - so I suppose the suffering would serve me right.

This kind of gets me back on the vaccination track, reminding me of some silly anti-vaxxers' recent comments.

For instance, I was recently admonished for bringing up my own near-fatal childhood case of measles by one silly woman who remonstrated that "nobody dies of measles anymore."

Brrrraaap!!!! (Read that as a "wrong answer" buzzer.)

In fact, a little research has revealed to me that, while measles are close to eradicated in our cushy "west" side of the planet - by massive vaccination program, actually - about 130,000 children throughout the other, less-fortunate parts of the world still die of measles every year.

I say measles are "close to eradicated" in the richer parts of the world, because every once in a while, some idiot who thought he (or she) knew better than about 99.99 per cent of medical research scientists decided not to get a vaccination, and brings the bug back to an equally ignorant community of like-minded fools.

No, in North America, you're not likely to die of measles. That's because our superior medical care is available to take care of you, no matter how stupid you are.

But the measles bug is only one easy example that demonstrates the folly of the anti-vaxxers (on so many levels!).

Other diseases have the potential for even more impact on human life than the measles, and researchers continue to work furiously at finding vaccines to help fight them - diseases as diverse as malaria and cancer.

Rotary Clubs around the world, for instance, have been working with international agencies and governments to kill polio, once and for all.

And they've gotten close - but one of the final stumbling blocks remains the ignorance of people who are easily fooled into believing that vaccinations damage, rather than heal.

There are other treatments being devised to try and help people get past the maladies that infest the planet - but vaccination remains one of the strongest weapons in the arsenal.

I feel better now I got that off my chest.

But honestly - not much better.

Shoulda got the vaccine.