Twitteretter

I am following with interest the vaccine distribution saga. The EU is complaining, and rightly so, that it is not getting the supplies contractually committed, due to export restrictions in other countries. The UK, the US and India, to name a few, are, by different, open or stealthy methods, blocking those exports, maybe also rightly so. In the meantime, fraudulent vaccine supplies are appearing and many who get a chance are jumping the vaccine queues, to get ahead, regardless of their need, putting their wish for a holiday, for example, ahead of the lives of the vulnerable. This is a sorry state of affairs. It turns out that the vaccine is not only a prevention method for a specific illness, but a diagnostic method for several others, lack of solidarity and selfishness, short sightedness and low integrity, both at the individual and national levels, since states are, after all, an imperfect reflection of the imperfections of their citizens. Time to show some patience and stay cool? Le...

Vaccination is not about individual protection, but group protection. What this really means is that a vaccine with 95% protection will be ineffective if only 60% of people use it, whilst a vaccine with 65% protection will be effective if 95% of people use it. It is not about doting an individual with a shining, Arthurian armour, but about impairing the ability of the virus to spread in a population, so that its famous R number dwindles, and the virus does with it. This poses a significant problem for our highly individualistic societies. It seems, in fact, that many people are incapable of thinking in these terms. They only care, can think of or understand individual protection. The concept of group protection, maybe the concept of group or collective all in all, is beyond them, as if their ability for collectivism, precisely the ability that made humans who we are, has completely deserted them at a fundamental level. The virus, of course, hunts in groups, we must defend as a herd Len...

While coronavirus continues to rage, wreaking havoc and destruction all over our planet, we continue to develop and manufacture our vaccines, the silver bullets that may slay the monster of quasi lycanthropic horrors. The problem is global, and so called First World countries are well aware of this. Many are contributing money to initiatives to fund the purchase of vaccines by the poorest countries in the World. On the face of it, solidarity, an admirable, philanthropic gesture. But, alas, what one hand gives, the other takes away. These same countries are buying and storing vaccine stocks which exceed what is needed to vaccinate their whole populations, so there are no vaccione stocks left for the countries they have funded. A live experiment, trying solidarity and selfishness simultaneously. When doing so, the latter will win the day. Virtue is often more fragile than sin, less prepared for the head on clash. If you act morally and immorally at the same time, you are acting immorally...

Metaphors have their dangers. They require the same level of cognitive intelligence in those who hear them than in their proponents and, without it, they can lead to misunderstanding and misinterpretation. We’ve seen a good example this week. Humanity was challenged this year by a new virus which spread like wildfire, changed our way of life and reminded us of our ultimately frailty. Humanity, always resourceful, responded with a herculean effort to develop vaccines, diagnostics and treatments which would restore our freedom, conducted with such unprecedented speed, internationally, that the analogy of a race was used. Humanity against the virus. This is how most understood it. Except the UK government, it seems. Whilst the rest of the World cooperated to beat the virus, Hancock, Williamson et al were engaged in a different race. UK versus Europe, the eternal, imaginary enemy. Luckily for us, most governments and normal humans understood we were racing the virus, not our neighbours...