HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW?

In today’s world, when you’re reaching out with your views and other revelations, it can ‘go viral’, whether you want that or not.

You have to know what you’re talking about. One of my favourite one-liners has always been – ‘know a little about everything and everything about something’. I fell short there. And wanting to fill the knowledge gaps about the present state of affairs with COVID-19, I came across the following: “The shift to resurgences driven by sub-lineages rather than new variants potentially heralds a change in the evolutionary pattern of the virus and a move to it becoming endemic.” Are we supposed to understand that? Perhaps not. In any event, I think I’d better stick to football. There should, nevertheless, be the opportunity for the expression of views by the layman. If only to other laymen; sorry, laypersons.

Disappeared

Firstly, we don’t read about COVID-19 now. Is that because it’s disappeared? Definitely not. But the profile has changed hugely. It’s fading. Is it possible that everyone’s been catching COVID-19 recently? Lots of people coughing and sneezing, or off work for a couple of days with flu-like symptoms. And no one going into isolation. I’m willing to bet you E10 – I only bet that on certainties (lol) – that there are thousands in Eswatini catching the coronavirus and shaking it off a few days later. Look at the statistics. Lots of infections and those are only the ones tested for particular reasons, and thus published. Hardly any deaths and those probably linked to co-morbidities. And only a handful of hospital admissions.

A simple and, I emphasise, humble suggestion: Drop the masks entirely, except for those already medically challenged and needing special protection, and continue building herd immunity to supplement our 30 per cent vaccination level. People will obviously then be more exposed to COVID-19, but while the prevailing variant and ‘sub-lineages’ are not severe, we will be building up immunity. Or, at the very least, providing better protection for if, and when a severe variant were to crop up. How can taking such risks – in the present, I stress – be to our disadvantage? The word ‘epidemic’ is creeping in to replace ‘pandemic’. A pandemic is a worldwide spread while an epidemic is special to a country.

Emerging

Different strategies are, therefore, emerging for varying coronavirus epidemics in different countries. Masks are no longer a legal requirement in the UK, while a weird Youtube video showed Beijing one evening during its current lockdown. Now China doesn’t mess about. A lockdown is a lockdown, not the previous half-hearted stuff in the more liberal countries of the world. From perhaps the 30th floor window of a skyscraper block of apartments, the film recorded a massive cacophony of sound; people shouting and banging cutlery and crockery in the huge skyscrapers that extended as far as the eye could see, lights blazing from almost every window. The occupants were presumably complaining about the lockdown, not celebrating a goal scored by Beijing Wanderers. I don’t know which was more creepy; the noise of the banging and shouting, or the thought of living in such an environment.

All those massive identical-looking skyscrapers and only concrete on display as far as the eye could see. I’ll never look at 50 square metres of field in the same way ever again. The Prince of Wales – the pitch not the person – became, overnight, my idea of paradise. So why don’t we drop the mandatory aspect of wearing masks? Adherence to the rules has become sloppy anyway. Half the time you enter a shop or office block and encounter many occupants having dropped their masks or adopted the less effective ‘half-way house’, with the nose – a droplet distributor of similar ability to the mouth – totally uncovered. They’re strict in banks, though; you’re not even allowed to talk loudly to your best friend on a cellphone! There will nevertheless remain, with many and perhaps forever, the habit of sanitising hands, and avoiding skin-to-skin contact with others. The latter would be a great shame; monkeypox respected of course. Banging fists and elbows must surely cause our long-gone loved ones to reflect uncomfortably in their resting places.

Extraordinary

And the ebullient of the taekwondo community preferring to greet each other with spinning jump kicks (lol). Everyone to their own. One person I met would like to wear a mask forever; extraordinary. I’m not one of those. My siSwati lessons are on hold because, with the diminished hearing ability from many years on the planet, it’s not easy to even understand English when it’s through the mask; thus many of us endure a more isolated world for the time being. Mind you, ‘utsini’ now comes automatically and, on reflection, preferably to the more long-winded ‘I beg your pardon’ which has to be the most durable evidence of how fondly we remember Mr Charles Dickens and his wonderful prose, delivered to the world nearly two centuries ago.

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