Oh what wouldn’t one do to be able to go back about nine months in time and have a good long chat with the people of Wuhan about the perils of a roasted Pangolin sandwich invest every last penny in companies produces perplex screens, black and yellow plastic tape and customised floor vinyls. The one in my photo is a rather spiffy vinyl found in Bournemouth town centre, featuring a rather ironic plane on account of Bournemouth’s annual air show. The 2020 edition of which was, of course, cancelled months ago. Still, it is a rather nice looking vinyl. Dare I say it looks rather collectible? I’m almost tempted to peel it off and take home. Then sell it on eBay in ten years for a small fortune.
A friend shared an interesting article from the Economist on Facebook today. There are indeed many hard questions to be asked. There are few concrete answers though. Which will no doubt come as a something of a shock to the legions of Facebook and other online armchair experts who have provided viral forecasts for the coming year with surprisingly high levels of confidence. Predictions invariably follow a set pattern according to their political views and choice of media. Which is to say that predictions either involve hiding in a bunker for the next decade, or carrying on as if there were no virus at all.
It’s tiresome. There are many possible directions that the pandemic could go, and it can make for interesting debate – exploring those options, the likelihood of each possibility and what evidence exists to support them. But I have largely tuned out the proffered wisdoms of anyone who either insists that the Swedes ‘got it right’ or that schools mustn’t be opened under any circumstances. The one thing that I’m certain of is that there’s a 99% chance that someone insisting upon one of those probably doesn’t really know what they’re talking about.
I’ll offer a talking point though, just because. It seemed plausible when I read it. How possible it is, is anyone’s guess. The premise was simply that we’ve gotten away lightly in the northern temperate zone. So far. The virus bloomed just as the temperature increased and the population headed outside. Come autumn, the virus will return, with a higher degree of transmission and greater viral loads. And it’ll hit in a killer pincer attack with the flu. We’re all doomed.
Maybe. But I’m trying to be cautiously optimistic. I try to tread the path that lies somewhere between the extremes. We do need to approach life a little more cautiously than we once did. We also need to take some risks to make sure our economies and societies don’t self implode. I’m doing my bit. I’m up for the Eat Out To Help Out deal. Mrs P and I will travel to foreign destinations* in September and October, rules permitting. And I do hope that someone pressed the U.K. government as to why they’ve frittered the last five months away without developing a really effective test and trace programme. The US government, of course, simply needs removing.
But we are where we are. I can’t go back in time. I can’t intervene in Wuhans worst ever picnic. Nor can I throw my life’s savings into shares of plastics companies. I simply have to cross my fingers and hope that the shares I do own stage some sort of recovery within the next couple of years…
The Mexile 