While COVID was RAMPANT: This was CORONABLOG
APRIL 16TH, 2020 ‘ANCOCK’S ‘ARF ‘ARF!
(ask yer Grandparents about that hilarious play on words, if you didn’t get it)
One Matt Hancock? There’s only one Matt Hancock. Government ministers on radio or TV apart from the Daily Service? There’s only one. Matt Hancock.
Well he’s taking a battering is our Minister for Health. Few weeks back, he said we were testing 12,500 people a day, we weren’t (it was 8,000). Then it was everyone has ample PPE (protective equipment). Nowhere near it. Then there’s the daily garbage verbosely avoided at the update things. Turns out we’re NOW very upset about the fact that there’s lots and lots of older people dying in Care Homes (but not included in the figures, and hardly any have been tested, so they die, i.e. don’t go into hospitals, don’t use the ventilators, hospital beds etc, so it’s hardly surprising that we have “plenty of capacity in the hospitals”.
Care Home staff haven’t got the equipment to protect themselves, so, like the Nurses, Doctors, Bus Drivers and all front line staff who ARE dying through lack of equipment, maybe bunches of these will die too. But AT LEAST, they’re getting given lapel badges saying CARE.
Unlike the Far East, and several European countries, thought are turning to the difficult decision to slowly end the Lockdown. Tricky as deaths are still so high in Europe, and the UK hasn’t seen the peak yet, it’s really going to be an incredibly dreadful call, if people get it wrong. In the UK, of course, we’re miles away from Hancock’s 100,000 test per day by the end of April (we’re doing about 13,000 ish). There’s no antibody tests yet (the Far East ones haven’t improved in effectivenessity, the Americans announced yesterday that General Motors has successfully come up with one, and they will start rolling these out, which has spurred the President on to start considering “Getting the US Back To Work”)….
Other UK Government ministers spew out almost identical rhetoric daily “We fully intend” “Every effort is being made” “We have to thank”…
Oh, and the PM went into Intensive Care, then was released, but it was touch and go.
This is a bugger of a Virus. The research scientists are daily arguing about whether there will be proper immunity to a vaccine, whenever it arrives, and the journalists are only asking one question this week…when are we out of lockdown here?
The charming story of a WW1 & 2 Veteran Captain Thomas Moore walking up and down his garden with Zimmer Frame to raise money for the NHS (£13 million at the mo!) has least “gripped the nation”. Well, the TV News channels have something different to film.
Still, locked away, I made my first ever Banana Loaf, and very good it still is….
More soon….thoughts to my Contact link in the Menu above please…..
APRIL 10TH, 2020 Up, Up and A BAT
Government Strategy, any chance of one please? Well for a couple of days now, the Government has declared that I am “Extremely Vulnerable” to getting this virus thing, so my further total lockdown is to last 12 more weeks at least, with NO walks, going to shops, NOTHING. So I have LOADS of time to write music, drink, eat (fortunately not THAT hungry at the mo, but I’m hoping I get on a Supermarket list for the Not That Able….I need huge stocks of beers and tonic…).
Meantime, the daily Government briefings are getting blander and blander, this week distracted by our esteemed PM being in MY HOSPITAL (St Thomas’) but fortunately getting better. So I decided, along with daily chats with buddies who also are extremely concerned about the UK’s strategy, and let’s face it, today we’ve had the highest daily death toll yet, in Europe, and the whole Testing, PPE, Ventilators and CONTACT TRACING thing is in turmoil.
The issues may I believe be summarised as follows:
1) EVERYTHING is 2 months late…nobody in the UK even considered preparing for a major epidemic in the U at the start…we now (10 April) have the highest daily fatality figure in Europe..we will end up being the most devastated country in Europe it is suggested…
2) There has hardly been any real sensible numbers of testing….of ANY sort. Ramping up? Not VERY much because we don’t have the kits or infrastructure (kits/locations/labs/strategy) to do this properly…the so called “experts” on the daily government briefings aren’t in fact scientific “experts”, they’re more management psychologists….the Scientific geniuses on the advisory panel to Public Health England are kept totally quiet…
3) We didn’t learn anythingfrom the Far East…the majority of UK Medical Experts are disgusted by the fact that NO Taskforce has been put together to do Testing followed by Contact Tracing…That is the ONLY strategy that will work…almost every successful country has done this…we didn’t lock down and “cordon sanitaire” as recommended by WHO…hence there have been more and more local spreads….because of hugely “decimating” all local NHS facilities and medical labs, we’ve ended up being slow, and more and more frontline workers are dying as a result……unforgivable I say.
4) Testing kits and PPE are hardly made in decent numbers in this country. We should have copied Germany 2 months ago and acquired huge supplies. IT’S A PANDEMIC for Heaven’s Sake….
5) We are BOTTOM of the technological use in the Hi-Tech World regarding Contract Tracing and apps, months behind the Far East….
6) Virologists state that the CONTACT TRACING is going to be the MOST IMPORTANT thing here, as it is in the Far East…..Public Health England aren’t even releasing the important data for the spread of the disease and locations etc…it’s regarded as being “too sensitive”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=05-jbrHRmrs&feature=emb_logo
Finally, THE COVID REPORT (link above) is a new YouTube channel series featuring discussion involving British experts and commentators, which I personally believe is what should happen at EVERY daily Government Press Conference….no pussyfooting, shillshallying or willywaving….Tell Us The Truth.
NO letting up of lockdowns yet please, don’t even go on about it silly journalists…deaths are about to hit Thousands/Day so for goodness sake, just let’s get our act together NOW. It’s arguably already too late, and I’m gonna have to sit this one out for another 12 weeks at least…
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR….more soon…please comment via the usual Contact link in the Menu above, and I PROMISE I’ll repost some of the super things you’re saying on the next blog….
April 5th, 2020 The Three S’es: Science, Psychology, Stupidity, Sense and Selfishness
(see what I did there?)
The Science behind this AND more. Sooner or later, probably midway actually, there should be a vaccine element in our annual flu jabs, and that may well sort things out regarding COVID-19 at least for the next few years, until the next mega pandemic virus arrives. For those who are sincerely interested, heavy duty wise, below is some historical stuff about the science involved in all of this, and where we are now, in April 2020.
ALL OF THESE FACTS in this blog are supported by discussion with my former biochemical research buddy, plus about eight very interesting online scientific journal articles, and all may be checked by clicking on the links I’ll supply at the foot of today’s wise words (if you’re keen).
Viruses are tiny things which can be completely harmless and undetected, OR rarely can cause HUGE amounts of damage, like COVID-19. To fight them effectively, you’ve got to generally find a vaccine. Understanding the process of doing this requires what follows.
1) ISOLATE SPECIMENS of the virus
(which scientists in half a dozen countries started to do in late December 2019). This coronavirus is actually named SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). Now coronaviruses generally are like flu viruses in that they are very common, generally don’t kill (well in the UK in recent years, number of deaths have been recorded as between 8,000 and 28,000 during varying degrees of winter, and flujabs usually vaccinate quite successfully). HOWEVER COVID-19 was transmitted from ANIMALS, (as were SARS and MERS, previous nasty viruses, which were HIGHLY fatal to humans), and with this virus, it’s accepted now that the first person infected was in a food market in Wuhan, China where several kinds of live and dead animals, including bats, chickens etc were kept in close proximity. Whether this happened MANY months earlier, and the Chinese kept the figures quiet, or actually in November/December, is up for speculation. Whatever, the genetic “sequence” of the virus or “genome” was discovered and defined by the Chinese by the middle of January 2020, and the sequence shared with World scientists. While the Chinese went into astonishingly high lockdown, gathering together up to 40,000 of its own scientists to surround and rapidly test thousands of patients with symptoms, (then sending HUGE numbers to Quarantine Camps within the Hubei Province, and instantly Locking Down the rest)…..the 6 or so groups of virologist scientists around the world worked hard to get an initial basis for a vaccine, which was more or less found by the third week of January 2020!
The first human trials are CONFIRMED to commence from the last week of April 2020.
This is flipping unprecedented, and though ridiculously rapid, it does then take MONTHS of trials on humans to modify the vaccine produced to make it more than 80% successful, which is generally regarded as the minimum figure before calling a vaccine “effective”. It’s also incredibly expensive and vaccine developers need high teams of fundraisers to even get to the stage where small scale vaccines can be produced after very expensive tests and manufacturing. Let’s then hope that there aren’t too many “Anti-Vaxxers” who are against ANY form of vaccination, as they can always cause symptoms similar to those with the virus (from injecting into your body bits of the virus genes).
PHEW, got that? So that’s what these groups of scientists are doing NOW. Development in Canada of the vaccine is particularly well detailed and analysed (see link below) if you like to read that kind of thing! Epidemiologists (yup, that’s what they’re called), were and are CERTAINLY not all in agreement about what to do about this virus.
2) ONCE IT’S INFECTED PEOPLE & DEALING with COVID-19 kinda involves these things:
A) CONFIRMATION of when people have it (using TEST A as mentioned before on this blog site, otherwise know as the Antigen Test, which Germany are carrying out in half a million per week, and we’re going currently about 70,000 a week). Then if they’ve been tested and not simply left to do 7 - 14 days self-isolation, which lets antibodies build up resistance to it, then the symptoms go away. If the symptoms don’t go away, as with most people who end up having huge breathing difficulties, end up hospitalised, and given oxygen to help breathing, then if other underlying or otherwise conditions arise, the patient can sadly die, and is usually highly infectious so needs isolation. Those who don’t die either get released back into the world at large, or their symptoms just go away (like a standard flu, as this may eventually be classed alongside), and they are infectious no more.
The idea of CONTAINING it was in fact the first idea. The Chinese ended up CORDONING OFF about 100 MILLION folks around Wuhan, but EVEN SO, the virus has now been found in nearly every country in the world. But the Chinese method of TESTING, ISOLATION and QUARANTINE of people AND THEIR CONTACTS (often with the aid of relatively simple Phone Apps which locate and send texts to people to self-isolate) seems to have been largely successful in controlling the spread of the virus.
At least Antarctica seems clear! Some epidemiologists think up to 70% of the World Population will eventually be infected by this SARS-CoV-2 virus, and thus will get COVID-19. Of these billions of people, at least 15 percent will have NO symptoms at all, same as most cases of influenza. The majority will have minor symptoms, bit of fever, bit of a cough, etc etc, but some, and this figure is slowly and surely being agreed upon, SOME will die, as discussed above. The MORTALITY rate for seasonal FLU in the world is about 0.1% according to the WHO. According to the incredibly disagreeing epidemiologists from all different schools of though around the world, the current figure, based on highly incomplete data, is that 3% approx of people with the virus will die. This of course doesn’t include the zillions of people who haven’t been tested and so consequently don’t know if they’ve got the virus or had it, or not. So the 3% is likely to fall dramatically, maybe even to the same as standard influenzas. Whatever, it’s MOSTLY elderly adults who catch it, then people with “underlying” conditions which affect the ability of the body to cope and build up resistance, such as people with cancers, heart problems, lung diseases and others…
SO…if you can actually CONTAIN IT, what next? WELL, the NEXT PART is where it is now regarded that the UK has totally blown it. Public Health England at first decided that using mathematical models, forget what the Chinese had done, and that they should MANAGE THE EPIDEMIC, let loads get it, then get to a relatively low maximum deaths but ensure that HERD IMMUNITY had been built up, and then the overall number of deaths would then drop, while more and more people became immune. problem was that the people advising the government GOT IT WRONG because over 20% of people infected in the UK by the end of January got very ill, weren’t building up immunity, and people started to die, indicating that as hardly any testing had been done (still in the 100s a day in February!), there were probably hundreds of thousands already with the virus, and no isolation measures had even been considered. Same certainly goes for Italy and Spain, who have the second highest infection figures in the world.
B) TESTING - TEST A One guy that seems to write a whole load of sense is a UK Paediatrician called Anthony Costello who was a director at the WHO, who said “We’ve got this totally wrong: the government weren’t being advised by people involved in public health, and the globally respected and accepted form of virus management was and should be TESTING, ISOLATION, QUARANTINE.” They’re doing this now almost everywhere in the world. It took us until MARCH 23rd 2020 before the UK changed its tack. Testing however is a massive problem in the UK. It isn’t in South Korea. Why?
IN SOUTH KOREA, these Tests A (antigen or PCR “polymerise chain reaction” tests) are everywhere. They do 20,000 a day in 633 sites. They are FREE, many are drive-through, they swab your mouth/nose and get taken to one of a large number of labs, where a six hour incredibly complicated series of steps is involved in the analysis. Essentially the Chinese isolated the virus “RNA” (the viral blueprint), and this PCR test ends up with a version of RNA (converted to a more measurable DNA) which if compared with the with the Chinese original version shows YOU’VE GOT VIRUS in your body. Still there. NOW. Because there’s tons of steps to do this, 6 hours is till incredible, but up to 30% of these tests can be simply wrong. However if you give it to someone with symptoms, there’s at least a very strong case that they have it. If they’re negative, it is NOT an all clear for the patient/testee. Got it? You get the result back BY TEXT within 24 hours. As simple as that.
Because of this test, you get a very good idea where the virus has spread to in the population so that they, and everyone they’ve been in contact with (up to a point, with the ubiquitous aid of phone Apps) may be quarantined (7 - 14 days). A hell of a lot more people know if THEY HAVE IT, and the South Koreans also know WHERE THEY ARE.
What then? As we know if symptoms don’t diminish within 7 - 14 days, people may need to go to hospital, and as discussed they may pass away, if the oxygen and use of ventilators and constant care doesn’t assist sadly. (N.B. Yes, in the UK, we are lacking these ventilators in the thousands, maybe more, with no immediate chance of enough, plus have turned down the EU offers to join in mass purchases from the Far East. China this morning sent New York 1000 ventilators, as Central Government said they didn’t need them, so the Mayor put out an appeal.)
In summary, this is what is happening in ever increasing amounts in the UK and USA where we started incredibly late to test. Bad bad news. Unforgivable, I’d say. Because in SOUTH KOREA, there have been 174 COVID-19 deaths out of only 10,000 positive cases compared with as of today nearly 5000 deaths out of nearly 50,000 positive cases. In the USA, they started to isolate and test very very late, and the figures there are soaring.
SO, can we get to 100,000 tests/day in the UK? Can we get the test kits (which include swabs and active reagents)? The US companies making them have been banned from exporting them…only TWO countries even manufacture the swabs, and they are in Italy and the USA. The UK has not even set up a minimal capacity laboratory regime to analyse the samples. That is finally starting after an appeal to Universities and Private Labs, two months too late, experts say. Plus, there’s a bidding war going on worldwide for these test kits and experts think it’s going to seriously affect the mortality outcome.
Anyway. That’s Test A.
TESTING - TEST B This would be the “Antibody Test”. This is also called Serologic Testing. The UK has just ordered 3.5 million of these “pinprick” tests. They are quoted today as saying a further purchase for 40 million has been guaranteed. These are all variations on the same test. Basically, a week or two after someone HAS BEEN INFECTED there are antibodies in measurable amounts in the bloodstream. This test is a standard immune system test that tests for immunoglobulin antibodies produced by the body after infection from the virus. There have been kits in the Far East since February, and these are appearing exported all over the world. Unfortunately, they mostly don’t work. Spain and the Czech Republic both sent back hundreds of thousands three weeks ago because they only had a 30% success rate. Those bought by the UK appear to be a newer test which should also “confirm” that the person with antibodies is now immune to the virus, though that sounds pretty dubious bearing in mind nobody knows this yet, and won’t for a considerable time. The UK also states it’s buying 15 minute home antibody kits, and New York says that they’re developing an “antibody serological drug” to test for antibodies, whatever that may be. Most promising seems to be the Rapid In-Clinic Vivalytic Test from Bosch, which tests for a total of 10 different viruses including SARS-CoV-2 (which leads to COVID-19). This produces results in under 3 hours and is done in a clinic. Also there’s a company called Sona Nanotech that is making a rapid test available later in April which can use blood, urine or saliva, and test people anywhere, including getting onto planes. These only take 5 to 15 minutes to get results…..
SO. Where ARE we now? Some countries claim they have reached a peak and have control of the spread of the virus, loosening the lockdown conditions in their cities. Other countries are still seeing the mortality and infection rate rise and have possibly months to go before any end may be in sight. Strategies have come and gone. 2020 will be known as the Year of Covid-19 whatever happens next. Companies investing the millions plus to produce a vaccine will need to be sure of its efficacy. All countries will need to be sure they can test effectively (which the UK can’t say as yet), and will need sufficient ventilator equipment to treat the ever increasing numbers in Covid-19 Wards in hospitals.
Hopefully, this analysis has informed and educated. It sure did me as I was reading and discussing bunches of this stuff.
Comments please to the Contact section at the top menu, and the most interesting will be printed here next time.
REFERENCES
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/coronavirus-very-2020-epidemic/605941/
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2018.02.013
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/coronavirus-research-lab-vido-intervac-1.5443244
https://theconversation.com/i-study-viruses-how-our-team-isolated-the-new-coronavirus-to-fight-the-global-pandemic-133675
https://www.theguardian.com/world/coronavirus-outbreak
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-antibody-test-g7-leaders-accuracy-covid-19-immunity-passports-2020-4?r=US&IR=T
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/coronavirus-antibody-test-what-is-it-virus-blood-nhs-matt-hancock-covid-19-a9423571.html
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April 3rd, 2020 Spin spin spin spin spin spin spin test test test
The World Of Politics. Bleaggggh you may say. But having been a member of the Labour Party all of my life (apart from quitting it twice), I guess I live, breathe, get angry, get delighted, get analytical, pay my taxes, get angry, get even more angry.
I am furious.
As someone in the later period of his life, I’m rather concerned about, well, LIVING. Politicians have a job to do. OK in my opinion, the whole Brexit thing was spun to the British People in the form of dominic Cummings’ lies, good old lies. Remember Nixon, remember Clinton? Remember Weapons of mass destruction? Yup, it’s all parties worldwide. Sure, there’s governments that just become Police States and beat the crap out of you before they can even START lying.
Then there’s hurtful life destroying holding-on-to-their-jobs type lying. Johnson, Gove, Hancock all practice this. Trump is way less complex, he’s an egocentric Dangermouth. But as we’re now potentially going through the biggest disaster worldwide caused by whatever (to be determined) that’s killing more and more, and won’t stop killing for a long while, and that’s going to alter the way the Earth functions in some way, THEN we need to question, question, analyse, question and then demand answers very loudly.
The World Health Organisation left a message over a month ago. Test, test, test. Many people agreed with that. But the UK was not prepared, and we are now in a desperate position. The death rate in this country is rising predictably hugely, and each time this government is asked what the heck it’s up to, the answers are lies, excuses, lies, pathetic ejaculations of intent, then more lies.
The latest is that now “we intend to “ramp up” (that phrase again) testing to 100,000 a day by May 1st 2020.” We currently do under 10,000 “antigen” tests per day (let’s call it Test A) which is a swab test that can say if the person tested actually HAS the virus. After Health Secretary Hancock spouted yesterday, there is still NO certainty that this will rise by anything significant AT ALL by May 1st. He plans to add Private Organisations and Universities to the testing regime IF THEY CAN GET THE TESTING KITS or DEVISE ANOTHER ONE. “We’re going to be working with other companies to try to ramp up the number of testing kits…” Germany is doing 500,000 of these Test A tests WEEKLY. We never bought aenough of them, can’t get hold of many of them, haven’t got them, so won’t know with any speed whatsoever where people have got the virus or not, so we’re vastly short on frontline emergency staff, who are staying away from work until they know they’ve had the virus and recovered (not died, as is happening). Hancock is lying, has lied, and whether it’s incompetence after very bad delaying decisions or simply it’s a disgusting smugness generated by the climate of spin and lies so enjoyed by Cummings, well, I’d say the government has blood on its hands.
AND…before anyone says Oh There’s Another Keyboard Warrior or something like that, do your research, come up with a reasoned different opinion and I’d be very happy to debate it.
Hancock also says that the 100,000 daily tests he’s hoping to do in a month’s time also includes a vast number of “antibody” tests (Test B) which can detect whether someone has already HAD the virus, has recovered, and is probably immune when tested. They could then go back to work, and not infect anyone, or be infected again. Probably. THING IS….small problem, Test B DOES NOT EXIST yet. No Test B actually works. Yet. Spin spin spin spin spin spin spin LIES.
So where does that leave us? In desperate need of testing. In desperate need for full protective clothing for frontline workers. Unfortunately, it appears (TBC) that the EU scheme that would have allowed us to take part in purchasing huge numbers of masks and ventilators at near to cost price was shunned. Civil Servants went to 8 meetings apparently to discuss these matters, then said No Thanks. Getting Tory donors Dyson at the eleventh hour to dream up a ventilator sounds like last minute desperation to me, and what Formula One racing car manufacturers are doing, Heaven knows.
Is there any good news? The country is having a bash at the lockdown & social distancing thing, and making a reasonable fist of it (apart from a few arrogant scum who simply don’t give a damn). This situation could go on for ages…still bunches of people are going to work on the tube, so that isn’t helping…the Brazilian President doesn’t think it’s a problem nor do bunches of senators in certain US States. Marvellous. One of my so called friends says ”it’s just a load of fuss over nothing…listen to the Spiked Podcast, more people die of flu, blah blah…” Right. Glad you’ve understood this all much better than me.
I’m in an Underlying Condition category here, having had a lung thingie since I was 29. Means I get three or four chest infections a year. So I’m a bit worried, rather fancy a few more years on this planet. Things to do, People to see etc…..
My dear pal and correspondent Peter Newman-Legros wrote in response to the April 1st blog piece (below):
Spot on with your a-musings and seriousnesses also. I’m hoping that one outcome will be that the world collectively will be given a hefty knock away from its hitherto direction; that unfettered capitalism and the endless quest for profit are not seen as the remedies for healing the damage done to people and economies. Perhaps a critical mass will finally make the difference and following a humanist path will become the new world « socialism ». We can but hope. Smaller, simpler, kinder. And if the popularist despots and commentators can be seen for what they are and given the boot, that would be a good result. We know who they are.
Wouldn’t that be nice.
I can tell that people like my pal namesake Chris “Wood” Marshall, a very Pro Establishment figure, will probably disagree and say that they’re probably doing the best they can (which I suppose might be the point here). We never share similar views really, but that’s fine. In this case, I think by finding out rapidly why we’re so drowning with the testing scenario, we could force the government to change course, appeal (to Europe?) for huge numbers of Test A if there’s any spare, and the government could admit that this “absence of reagent” is because they waited so long before acting, they could save a bunch of lives, and help to get out of this heap….would so love to be proved TOTALLY WRONG.
Any comments gratefully received…use the Contact button in the header menu, and I’ll repost the best bits.
xx
April 1st, 2020 Lockdown in London
Good Grief. Hello World. Well this is an excuse for me to keep some sort of diary containing events and my thoughts about such events so that when all this Virus thing is over, and here’s hoping I’ll still be alive and breathing at such point, then we can look back and make observations, cast nasturtiums, and be alarmingly smug, disgusted, over emotional and even somewhat shocked by what’s happened. So here’s this here, as opposed to upsetting too many people on other Social Media. Enough are spouting there…
It’s 31st March 2020, and it’s been a sort of Lockdown in London for a couple of weeks now. This means popping out for a walk and a shop a couple of times a week, in my case. My half-the-time Nurse buddy is here for a few days then back to Yorkshire where he also nurses (in two places), so is getting quite pooped. I’m trying to write more enormous life-changing International hit songs (very very slowly) with wrist injuries, and old lung injury and a slowly recovering left eye after a botched then recovered cataract surgery….
But, London. UK. We’ve had a few months since we heard about the virus which originated probably in dodgy bat food markets, no I mean, Food Markets (where bats are still to this day sold) in Wuhan in China at the end of last year. Hospitals were rapidly built there, thousands have died (though the current conspiracy theories suggest that FORTY times the number of infected and died is the true figure), so the UK conspiracy theories currently abound, regarding: 1) nowhere near enough protective clothing for frontline staff, 2) a suspiciously low number of ventilators, testing kits and testing full stop is out there, 3) the daily briefings contain a vast number of lies by Government officials (including Johnson, Hancock and Gove) so that’s hardly surprising, especially as they’re all guided by Chief Liar Dominic Cummings, who may well be running the whole shebang.
Italy and Spain have alarming numbers of infected and dead (the latter currently rising by nearly 1000 a day), though the UK’s figures are hardly reliable as the government keeps changing the criteria for counting them.
Countries like Brazil have a leader who says Don’t Take Any Notice of Guidelines (“let’s face this virus like a man”), Florida has absolutely jam packed beaches as the Governor of Florida thinks it’s a good idea to keep Normal Activities Happening (“We have to look after the next generations”). Trump himself has changed his Point of View sometimes thrice daily, but then his lies make Cummings seem angelic. Can he possibly survive all this?
So what’s our strategy? Do we have one? The scientific boffins in the UK honestly don’t seem very clear on any sensible strategy other than at the moment “Wash Your Hands, Social Distance, and Stay At Home” to save the NHS. Idiots are still partying and the Police now have Sweeping Powers. They do.
So we’ve ended up in March 2020 Locked Down, about to enter a massive world recession after an equally massive pandemic, and I’m not convinced Life will ever return to Normal. What’s also happening is that polluting Nitrous Oxide levels are diminishing impressively, the canal water in Venice is crystal clear, and with the hugely reduced road and air traffic, evidence of hugely decreasing pollution from aerial shots is most promising.
AND YET…..we’ve not heard much from Russia or Africa at all, India with its huge population is now declaring, and this could go huge there, the USA is currently the greatest affected (if the figures are to be believed), and countries in the Far East claim they’ve beaten it. Planes are arriving at Heathrow daily and passengers not checked AT ALL upon arrival, whereas all airports Eastern have vast numbers of testing staff as soon as people arrive.
So what does any of this mean? Are we starting to examine our lives during the long lockdown periods, especially attitudes to work, friendships, environment, other people (less fortunate etc)? Do any of us think there should be MASSIVE change so as to save the World, animals, plants, oceans, kinda restore the balance the planet used to have whenever that was?
Will any of us change our politics? It’s not unknown that I’ve always been a bit of a leftie, and don’t think very much of this government, or other extreme Tory ones. Equality and Chance in life (not to mention Freedom) no matter ones origin must be the most important things in life to my mind. Anyone who is dishonest, who constantly lies (at least Thatcher didn’t exactly do that, Belgrano aside) has no place in my life or in Power in my opinion.
(Here we go…) So people who parade in front of us since Brexit (I so wish we were still in the EU, leading it even) to constantly be uncaring and lie through their teeth for their own ends, people who take advantage of other people and exploit financial loopholes to get richer and richer and richer whilst so many people suffer, and it doesn’t matter HOW great an entrepreneur you are, as long as you use your money without greed and share it when you have an insanely excessive amount, and finally people who are outright crooks, and whose prime characteristic is evil…well all these folks should be taught a lesson by whatever’s happening now, and help to make a Better World.
Yeah Yeah Yeah, what Hippie Rot. You’re all right Jack, you own a house, have food, drink and friends, and work minimally and at your own pace. I hear this. True (though I certainly worked for most of it, and was blessed with some talent).