The Corona Diaries – Day 154

Posted on by Opher

I had to laugh today – there was Tory fury when it was leaked that Rule Brittania and Land of Hope and Glory were being looked at with a view to drop them from the last night of the Proms due to their slavery connections. Never mind the jingoistic nationalism or patriotic xenophobia. Tories went ape-shit!! That’s what they stand for!! They still mentally inhabit the days of empire and colonial subjugation – that’s where all their wealth came from!!

I suggested using Roy Harper’s ‘I Hate The Whiteman’ as the new national anthem! Better still, we could ask him to write one!

Today has been a bit of a wash-out. It’s been raining most of the day and the cricket has been washed out! Tragedy! I couldn’t go for a walk so I did my exercise on the treadmill listening to Phil Ochs, Billy Bragg and Linton Kwesi Johnson.

I came back and started work on my book again – I’ve nearly completed the rewrite. I was then playing some George Harrison to raise my spirits!! Good old George!!

On the virus front, there is news of people becoming reinfected both here and in Hong Kong. That’s not good news for either herd immunity or a vaccine.

Trump is looking to fast-track the vaccine – which really could be a bad day for safety. If the vaccine had adverse reactions in just 1% of people that would put millions at risk of damaging their health – and those symptoms might take time to become apparent. Vaccines do not always work – sometimes they can make it more deadly should someone get the disease. There are no safety short-cuts. They need thorough testing on large numbers – but then all that is in Trump’s head is re-election – he really doesn’t care about peoples’ health – I think he has quite clearly demonstrated that.

The reduction in death-rates in the UK, which has been quite dramatic – just 6 yesterday, is attributable to the younger age of the victims coupled with much better treatments. That’s good news. At least the NHS is doing a better job than the government!

Johnson has popped up out of hiding. He is urging parents to send children back to school next week – sacrifice them for the good of the nation (along with their teachers)! You have a moral obligation! Once they are in school you can get back to your zero-hours slavery and boost the economy!! The wealthy need you!

An interesting snippet was that a survey found that kids are less stressed despite the pandemic. It seems that life among their peers, in school, or hanging out, is more stressful than fear of the virus. That that tell us something about bullying levels?

So on day 154 of my isolation, the UK staggers along with 1041 new cases but only 6 deaths.

Meanwhile, out there in the land of John Wayne another 33,618 cases were registered with 565 deaths – people are still saying it’s a hoax and everything should be opened up and threatening to start a civil war if it isn’t. My my!!

In Brazil with the callous Bolsonaro, who loves playing to his base as much as Trump does, there’s another 17,078 new cases and 565 deaths.

All the worst countries in the world have the same populist fools who only care about cash!

So endeth day 154!!  Take care everyone!!  Stay Safe!!

12 thoughts on “The Corona Diaries – Day 154”

  1. Well Opher, we in John Wayne land circled the wagons but found that we don’t have wagons anymore because they were all made in China!

    Oh well, the Orange One played another round of golf so it’s business as usual.

    Americans don’t really notice these things. We are too busy standing in line to mail a letter.

    Cheers.

    1. The great Orange One wants to bring back wagons and make them in America (using slave labour on zero-hours contracts in wagon sweatshops) – all profits to go to the worthy (him and his friends).
      I heard Trumpy was down in the bunker? Or was that just during the BLM protests?
      Letter posting is important. I posted Q and S yesterday. I’m planning on B and C tomorrow.

  2. I’ve not really been tracking numbers here in Portugal since the state of emergency ended and now mask wearing, hand disinfecting and limitations in traffic flow in indoor spaces likes shops and restaurants have become a part of life. I took a look today. There have been 29 confirmed cases in the council in which I live and 36 in the neighbouring council (total cases). Overall, there have been 55,912 cases in the country, with 1,805 deaths, mostly centred around the larger cities – Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra (the city closest to us). Today 192 new cases in the country were reported, the highest this month being 325 in one day. With a population of 10.28 million, I’m not sure how that compares (too lazy to do the maths!). I think the main fallout is going to be the impact on those who’ve lost their livelihood as a result of the measures to control the virus.

    1. Yes – I do feel sorry for all those people who have lost their jobs. It is tragic – and going to get a lot worse shortly.
      I think if you multiply by six you get a rough comparison with the UK.
      It is the same here – it’s the cities that have been hardest hit. Out here in the country, we do not hear of many cases.

      1. The government was quick to respond here – we went into a kind of amber state, forget what they called it now, well before the UK, then emergency state two weeks later. There was never any panic, no crazy shopping, there was a lot of compliance and it all felt relaxed. However, I would say now, there’s less caution in terms of keeping to two meters and with friends and sloppier mask wearing – probably as they become uncomfortable in the really high temperatures.

      2. I think that psychologically it becomes difficult to remain on alert when there is no perceptible danger. We start to relax.

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