The Pandemic Of Sisyphus

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We are in a pandemic where the only disease vector is proximity to others, so in theory this is one of the easiest pandemics to overcome, and end. In practice people are like cats, and getting them to self-isolate is like herding cats. Paradoxically if people were as hard to herd as cats, then the pandemic would have ended over a year ago and today we’d be doing something more fun.

During this pandemic we see that the numbers take weeks to make their way back down but they bounce back up very fast. We have gone from 100 cases per day two weeks ago to four hundred today. If I see the number of cases rising this is a reason to be more, rather than less cautious. This is a reason to do less, rather than more. This is a reason to spend as little time as possible in risky situations.

L’Office fédéral de la santé publique a fait état mardi de 483 cas supplémentaires de coronavirus en 24 heures.
L’immunité collective face au Covid-19 atteint désormais 67% à Genève – rts.ch – Info

In the 00s (zeros/2000s) Foot and Mouth was active in England. As a precaution we had to walk in soapy water with our shoes to avoid spreading anything. We were also asked not to go to the New Forest to avoid spreading that virus to the ponies and other animals. Back in those days they were trying to contain an epidemic.

Fast forward two decades and we are in week 80 of this pandemic, depending on what you use as a starting point. This means that we have had eighty weeks to learn about, get to understand, and finally to respond to and reduce the threat.

During this pandemic we have seen people fail to change their habits from one year to the next. This failure to change habits prevents life from moving on. Everyone is busy sabotaging the pandemic’s recovery.

Last night a politician actually said “Sorry” for lifting restrictions too soon. Politicians should react this way. Politicians should apologise, when an entire nation has to live in self-isolation for over a year, because their policies failed to bring a pandemic to an end.

La taskforce scientifique de la Confédération a alerté mardi sur une probable augmentation des hospitalisations à venir. Depuis le début du mois de juillet, le nombre de cas de contaminations liées au variant Delta double chaque semaine. Les infections ont particulièrement augmenté chez les 26 à 34 ans, suivis des 16 à 24 ans.
L’immunité collective face au Covid-19 atteint désormais 67% à Genève – rts.ch – Info

Since the start of july the number of infections from the Delta variant has doubled, this affects those from 16-24 and 26-34 and they expect hospitalisations to start going up soon.

We’re in a paradoxical situation, beccause if we self-isolate we’re silly not to enjoy ourselves, like everyone else. If we do not self-isolate, and everyone else does not self-isolate then we are providing the virus with a fantastic opportunity to spread.

The challenge during this pandemic, is not to take precautions, and to take a break from normal habits, it is seeing that others throw caution to the wind, and that there is no end in sight, not because we don’t know how to beat this virus, but because politicians always find a way to get the virus to spread again, through their incompetence. So far one politician has said “sorry”. All of them should.