Tale guide

Enough now!

A recent WhatsApp conversation

Mate, “My son has caught Covid. He’s absolutely fine. Just a bloody pain in the proverbial butt!”

Me, “That’s not good. Give him my best for a quick recovery.”

Mate, “It’s amazing how everyone wishes a speedy recovery. We are so programmed about Covid. Brain washed! Not to say that it cannot be serious. But in the main it’s like wishing someone well coz they have flu. The world is bonkers. Symptoms lasted 3 days. Flu, snotty nose, phlegm. Now we’re all trapped in the house and he is trapped in his room. I’ve seen people I know get really sick, so I don’t want to be blasé, but I have become a bit of a sceptic. Not sure what I believe anymore. But thanks anyway.”

Me, “no problem. I know how you feel”

We all know that there have been over 254 million cases reported worldwide of which just over 5 million have died and to correct one of the many conspiracy theories, Covid is not the same as flu as is confirmed by the fact that while there were 260 million cases of flu over the same period, only 140,000 regrettably resulted in death. *

But I guess the frustration lies with the broken promises or, in fairness, expectations, that were liberally created by health experts and governments alike.

When the virus escaped from Wuhan just about everyone stood up and took note. We listened to the leadership, committed to doing our bit for our community and the world, put our lives on hold and tucked in through the lockdowns.

Even when the first lockdown had to be extended because the virus was still out of control, we positively responded to the national call to arms.

The incredible vaccine story was inspirational, and a ray of light appeared on the horizon. But soon one jab had to be followed by two and two by three while the rhetoric was consistent in its promise that immunization would lead us back to normality.

Now, the UK has released the first Covid medication designed to treat an existing Covid infection which further diminishes the degree of severity and reenforces the promise of a return to normality.

Two years later and the majority of the UK at least, if not Europe and America as well, have been fully vaccinated and we are in a position to receive a vaccine passport designed to offer some form of assurance that we are less likely to be a risk to others.

But we haven't returned to normal!

The antivaxxers are being blamed for the delay in the return to normality.

By definition, the Woke brigade is holding the world to ransom yet again.

It seems that the minority continue to resist and save for those that cannot be vaccinated because of genuine medical reasons, I know no-one who has sympathy for the balance who, by implication, are trying to hold the rest of the world hostage.

We have endured almost twenty-four months of unnatural restriction both in terms of physical incarceration as much as the limitations placed on our ability to interact mentally and emotionally in the workplace and on the playing field.

The second lockdown turned into a third and in some countries into a fourth and God forbid, even a fifth could still be contemplated!

It has taken its toll on tens of thousands of otherwise healthy and ‘normal’ men, women and children where these abnormal conditions have impacted albeit subliminally, and the longer it goes on, the greater the damage.

Mate, “But other than that, I’m not on edge or stressed or aggravated. Think I need a chill pill and a holiday. Perhaps retirement will assist…only have about 25 years to go.”

Me, “Be careful what you wish for. Those 25 years will pass in a flash and then you'll need to be on a permanent course of happy pills just to get by with the missus twenty-four seven not to mention spending your days intruding on the busy lives of others with the vast array of social media.” 😂

I didn’t have issues with the vaccination. Who knows what’s in it? Same like who knows what’s in Smallpox, Mumps, Cancer and Aids medication let alone what they put into fast food burgers et al.

I've had Malaria severable times, Black Water fever and Yellow fever amongst the usual and thanks to the medical profession, survived to tell the tale.

I’m certain very few folk know what tattoo ink or Botox contains, but they plunge blindly head on into these procedures in pursuit of self-beautification.

We don’t know the long-term effects of cell phone usage either, but we spend a lifetime on them.

So, we’ve had the vaccines on the balance of probabilities that they will afford us some protection against the virus itself and we’ve obediently behaved the official guidelines despite the risk of psychological impairment to one degree or another which, by the way, was a risk not mentioned in the beginning.

Now its time to get back on the treadmill of life.

We need to pursue our professional careers, play our games, go to church, dine out and splash out on great theatrical extravaganzas.

And if the covid gets through our resistance, we'll take our chances on getting a snotty nose, phlegm and a cough. So what if it kills me, then as they say in the classics, it was my time anyway! But I won't let you take my life away just yet.

You can stop right now trying to accommodate the minority and you can stop trying to impose what is tantamount to authoritarian control.

You’ve done what you can for your people, for which I am grateful. But now there are a few more mountains I want to climb and seas I want to sail on.

Enough now! It is time to return the world to normal.

*United States National Institute of Health

Credit to the unnamed soldier who put me up to this!!!