A great sunny day in Yorkshire today as I went for my walk up my hill. My pet kestrel was out looking for grub. The crows were out in the fields searching for tidbits. There were no signs of my red kites though.
Back home I’ve been playing some Ian Dury. My he was good and gives me multiple reasons to be cheerful.
Apart from that it’s more of the same monotony!
Meanwhile out in Coronaland it is also more of the same. The fascist dictator Trump, having tried to steal the election, has his last two days of power. His support has dived, his Republican colleagues are jumping ship and distancing. His business partners are bailing out. He’ll be locked up soon. Not before time. There were another 169,641 new cases yesterday with 1730 more deaths. He’s on course to have killed 400,000 Americans by the time he is finally kicked out.
Johnson presides over another 38,598 new cases with 671 deaths.
Bolsonaro presides over another 33,040 new cases with 551 more deaths.
Jacinda Ardern presides over 6 new cases and no deaths (Total deaths over the whole pandemic – 25)
Between the three populist fools they have killed 725,000 people due to their arrogance and complacency!
Here in the UK we are rolling the vaccine out to all those over 70. That’s great news. At some point in the summer we should achieve herd immunity. Vaccination works. A look at this chart shows how effective it is:
The problem we have comes from these American conspiracy theories spread around by the antivaxxers. They will impede us achieving herd immunity and keep us all unsafe.
No vaccine is 100% effective. The Pfizer is about 90% effective. That means that 10 out of every hundred vaccinated are not protected. Add in the antivaxxers and it becomes more difficult to achieve herd immunity.
While that virus is circulating it is mutating. It could come back much more lethal.
The sooner we get the world all vaccinated the better!!
Then we can start planning how to prevent the next pandemic. I suggest:
- We stop hunting in the wildernesses and coming into contact with previously unknown viruses
- We stop all trade in wild animals and shut down wet markets.
- We give more money and power to the WHO to quarantine any future outbreaks and prevent them becoming pandemics
- We prepare adequate strategies to deal with the next one – including shutting down borders, tracking, tracing, isolating.
- We stockpile the necessary PPE and chemicals for testing
- We build up our health service and stop driving nurses and doctors away
- We elect some capable politicians instead of these populist twerps and fascists.
Until we come to our senses – stay safe!! Vaccine is on its way!!