I just wrote a post at the most recent TTG upload and realised that it was more suited for here - that I kind of felt the stress again. A thread that no-one wants to warm up, but it remains current. Or rather, it regains that quality in these days. So here we go - moved my thoughts from the TTG thread as a thought response to what Leo discussed on air with Johnny:
As per Covid, the statistics are really getting worse and worse over here. Germany is reaching new records and is catching up quickly to the UK which has been cooking on high heat for the past months with little signs of cooling down. Austria is begging everyone to hold their beer while opening up for the Winter season on the slopes with over 1k cases per 100k people - or over 1% of the population. A wonderful thought - in another time. But given the trend, we will be there in only three to five days. It’s ever so slightly difficult not to be a bit on edge about this. Sure, many are vaccinated, but the effect is wearing off. I am not going to say it’s a nightmare, but … I may have misplaced optimism for a moment.
Just consider for a moment that we have a vaccine that at least helps the situation since January. Now consider that all the lines right of the middle are after having the vaccine available. We’ve more or less reached everyone who was socially apt enough and in a medical position to get vaccinated by summer. That’s more or less the extent of the effect that we can reach with modern medicine, modern society, and - by type - an ancient illness.
What feels particularly damning is that we are all used to a certain news cycle and by that standard, Corona was last year. This year, it should be over. It’s just not new and scary anymore. So now, we are getting accustomed to higher figures and a worse situation, but with little to no “bullets left in the chamber” since additional lock-downs are feared to cause truly problematic economic (as in systemic, not just inconvenient) effects. People are setting up their little huts for Christmas markets here in busy downtown areas to prepare for holiday business as if it was 2019.
It seems like a roller coaster and we are heading for the wall. Everyone’s wondering if that’s a truly solid one or another one that you get through with bruises.
This is all so reminiscent of the central premise of “Counterpart”. Well, not the parallel world. Rather: we are the parallel world.
Keep safe, everyone - hope your areas are not seeing comparable developments!
PS: There are also some good looking news. As vaccinations have reached more people, the case fatality rate has gone down. At least until now.