Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Just in Time for 2020's End: A New Horror

 Great, with only a couple of days left in this terrible year, we hear news that the new, more contagious strain of COVID-19 has appeared in the 'States.  This strain of COVID-19 is thought to be 70% more contagious than the old novel coronavirus.  Of course, if it's been discovered in a patient in Colorado with no travel history, it's been here for longer than we suspected.  Appallingly, the Trump Maladministration has not mandated COVID screening for travelers from the UK.  It almost seems like Trump and his minions are pro-pandemic.  

The real horror here is that this new plot twist in the 2020 disaster narrative comes just when there seems to be hope for a resolution of the plague.  If we could just hold out another six months, we could put this pandemic behind us... 2020 gets the last laugh, though, and another post-holiday spike seems inevitable, with an even worse version of the pathogen.

As pessimistic as I am, I didn't have this on my '2020 Bingo Card'.


2 comments:

Richard said...

Hang in there, Big Bald Bastard. It is bad news. I don't know what i can do beyond that. I always wear a mask in public and wash hands but i have to go out for food tobacco and wine. I used to enjoy talking with people. I still do, but not so much.

DerFarm said...

It isd more contagious because it replicates faster. As far as we know, the disease course itself is practically identical to the current strain. The things you are doing now will work against the new strain. Furthermore, there is not evidence that the vaccines will not work on this new strain (that could change, but I hope not).

And in case your wondering if I am a research medical doctor, no. I'm not. However, my wife is and was chairman of the Dept of Quantitative Health Studies for 10 years. The words I wrote, I passed by her first.

So there.