I managed to get to my dentists yesterday. I had asked him to let me know when he had been vaccinated and he called me to say he had been "done", so I went down for a clean and check-up. I actually got a lot more than I bargained for.
He is originally from the middle east, and in keeping with that regional attitude, is totally convinced that the whole of the covid issue is a conspiracy by the "world order".
Now I class this as a regional thing, as the most western of all the syrians I knew was a guy who had a brit passport and a flat in London - but he was convinced that 9/11 was a CIA plot with huge falsification of eveidence - all to discredit the arab world. Hmmm.
Anyway, we had a long discussion about it all, with me giving him a line I was taught in Shell in the early days "Whenever you think there might be a conspiracy, it is actually always a cock-up". (Thanks Malcolm). I love this "cock-up trumps conspiracy" thing and always use it in these sort of situations.
The problem is, of course, that the logic of what has been going on in the world for the last year is very difficult to comprehend. When governments have to be reactive, they are just toooooo slow (think EU vaccine roll-out). I know they are not too good at being proactive either, but when the mierde hits the fan, you want a decison maker, not a fence-sitter. The problems with making these decisions under pressure are that, inevitably, quite a few will be wrong and you have to back-track. I am prepared to cut most of the world goverments some slack, as they were facing a unique challenge.
Get the drift. Governments are cocking things up in a crisis - therefore to think that they could actually plan all this is just beyond belief - or beyond my belief.
One of the problems that I can see is that there are still a hell of a lot of "unknowns". Efficacy, duration and side-effects of the vaccines; requirement for modified vaccines to treat variants; actual hard figures for deaths by covid where there were no associated illnesses; Age, gender, race, genealogy of the worst hit; etc., etc., etc. The trouble is that you don´t write the history of the war while you are in the middle of fighting the battle, so all that stuff will have to come out in time.
Where I do detect a conspiracy however, is where the "holiday destination" countries are rushing to abandon their controls in order to try to get money from tourism. Spain is about to end its state of alarm, which is the legal vehicle which as kept us all locked-down and safe-ish, and the regions are supposed to put in their own controls. With two days to go, they are starting to realise the problems they have created for themselves, as they just don´t have any procedures in place.
Basically they are acting as if nothing ever happened relating to the pandemic and hoping that everything will be ok as they relax all the current restrictions and prepare to let thousands of tourists flock in. This is in a country where vaccination levels are so haphazard that a dentist only got vaccinated a few days ago and the main pharmacist in Mijas is still waiting (as is my wife).
And, it is not as if the statistics justify it - I record the raw data and know that the infection rates in Andalucia are twice as bad now as they were 8 weeks ago - and they haven´t changed much in the last 4 weeks. - but you read the press and you would believe it is like the UK where thing do seem to be improving at a great rate.
The only thing we can hope for is that the regional authorities give themselves the power to control the relaxation - but with the alternative being possible financial benefits, I jus don´t see them being sensible.
I reckon it could all a conspiracy. (well, I did spend a lot of time in the middle east).
Actually I reckon it is all una locura (madness).
Realistically, it is just a cock-up (but of major proportions)
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