#TwoBits: A lot of pain ahead

Not long ago we were told that creating a vaccine against Covid-19 would take 10 years, 4 years, 2 years . . . it was a moving target.

Now they are getting ready to roll out the first vaccine in the UK within days and presumably Europe and America won’t be far behind.

Down here in faraway Africa it might take a little longer.

Our government’s reaction to the whole pandemic has been extraordinarily thorough and robust, when compared to all the other things we expect from our government, like a functioning Home Affairs department, well-maintained roads, electricity that stays on – you know, things the rest of the world gets in return for their taxes.

Rightly or wrongly, from banning sales of slip-slops to alcohol and cigarettes, they have gone at it full bore.

Just yesterday we got a dire warning from Dr Zweli Mkhize that the Ballito Rage event had been a “super-spreader” (now there’s a fancy new term!) and the irresponsible matric leavers could bring about more lockdown.

Just on that subject, how could the Rage events have been allowed to go ahead?

There was some blah blah about numbers being limited and social distancing etc, but seriously?

Can you see tiddly, hormone-fuelled teenagers keeping their distance from anything?

The yelling, screaming bunch of drunk teenagers in the holiday house next door to ours couldn’t tell social distance from a hole in the ground, and they had the sore heads to prove it.

Talking of holes in the ground, on our morning walks Rose and I watched the Colwyn Drive (Sheffield) washaway being repaired 2 weeks ago and wondered how effective it was going to be without a substantial drainage pipe under the road.

The gentlemen effecting the repair just blocked up the washaway with interlocking bricks, covered it with tar and disappeared into the blue.

The repair lasted less than a week.

Monday before last it bucketed down – some 68 mm was measured in Salt Rock – and as the road lies right across a watercourse, what happened was inevitable.

Seriously, both the contractor and the municipal engineer who passed the job are both a few oxen short of a span.

I sincerely hope they have not been paid for their appalling job!

But I digress; Back to the vaccine.

Those in the know say that to achieve so-called herd immunity, something between 60 and 90 percent of the population have to be vaccinated.

I am not so sure that the general populace will be all that thrilled to accept the vaccine, given the extremely short trial time.

Normally these vaccines take years of large-scale testing before they are released onto the market.

I am not saying they are unsafe, but I would not want to be the first to start baying at the moon.

That aside, how is the government going to force the population to take their jabs?

Remember the tracing app?

They wanted us to download an app onto our cellphones that could be used to tell you when you had been in contact with a ‘rona positive person.

It was a flop, so what next?

If the government starts insisting on certain requirements before citizens are allowed to take part in society, this opens the door to who knows what.

It certainly would encourage the conspiracy theorists, who have been saying all along that the pandemic is nothing but a plot to oppress the citizens of the world.

Technology has allowed governments, corporations, banks etc access into our lives in ways not dreamed of at the turn of the century.

Or it was the stuff of science fiction.

Are they going to insist that we produce a vaccination certificate before being allowed to go to school, eat at a restaurant, or board a plane or train?

I have great sympathy for the government as it struggles to control this pandemic, but I think we must also be aware that it is but a short step to a “step too far”.

I don’t for a moment believe the creepy stuff about the ‘rona being spread through 5G cellphone masts or Bill Gates conspiring with the Illuminati to inject chips into our arms, but I think we need to maintain a healthy scepticism of measures that might erode our civil liberties.

But I do believe that some countries of the world, maybe us as well, will insist its citizens carry some form of immunisation passport before being allowed to access public facilities, planes etc, so this dreadful pandemic is going to be painful for a long time to come.