Well, after several months of feeling like things were slowly getting back to some semblance of normality, there has been a resurgence in COVID-19 cases and Europe is again facing the reality of further restrictions to curb the spread of the disease. At this stage, 6 months in, people are tired. There is little appetite for heeding additional government warnings and a growing minority are beginning to question the viability and efficacy of the overarching strategy that has been employed worldwide; that is, indiscriminate suppression of the disease within the general population at whatever cost. We now know so much more about this infection - the structure and mechanism of action of the causative agent, how it is spread, who is vulnerable, how best to treat patients - but a vaccine or reliable treatment is still some way off. The clinical manifestations of COVID-19 are hugely variable and infections need to be treated on a case-by-case basis; the course of the disease can be long and difficult and there is no 'one size fits all' approach. As it will realistically be some time (another 6 months? A year?) before the medical and scientific communities are able to efficiently and reliably neutralize the disease (if at all), is lockdown or its variants the best that we can do? The damage to the economy and the psychological/emotional wellbeing of individuals and society as a whole is beyond comprehension at this stage but the real problem is that despite our best efforts to mitigate spread since the lifting of lockdown (social distancing, limits on gatherings and household visits, the wearing of masks, good hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette), the R rate or reproduction number stubbornly remains above 1, and the number of cases continues to rise. Total lockdown, where there was essentially no movement of people beyond a certain distance from their homes, did work well to flatten the curve and for a time afterwards, as restrictions were slowly being eased and behaviours were readjusting, the number of cases remained low. However, as soon as people got back to work in earnest, and children returned to school, and we had tentative opening up of various social outlets, the number of cases inevitably increased again and there is once more a genuine fear that this could translate to an overwhelmed health system in the next few months. Geographically localized lockdowns, with varying levels of restriction, are now the preferred strategy but this is somewhat unwieldy to implement in a country as small as Ireland and brings with it uncertainty and a lack of clarity.
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Really, it contains a little bit of everything, from a celebration of science and the English language to the joys of travel and the Shipping Forecast. The title ('Meanderings') is a fairly accurate description of its content: I write about different things as the mood takes me, but hopefully there's something in here for everyone... Categories
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March 2021
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And on another note... |
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