vaccine - day ten

 so let's go back in time. Lady Diana. Where we are not dealing with the coverage of an event but being forced into the same emotional mold. Now with the virus coverage we are subjected to the same cultist nonsense. The reporting of vast volumes of vaccine on order assuming a massive automatic victory. Experts being questioned as to the efficacy of vaccines,or moreover if there are any side effects, only to be told that the nature of the vaccines are too complex to describe. Well, here's an idea, make the news as long as you like and go into massive amounts of detail to help me understand.

there is talk about our federal leaders to be some of the first to be vaccinated. Are they going to be protected by some legal guarantee that protects them from any complications? Really, would you expect any less?

so here's the deal. If I should become infected I am happy to take the vaccine but not without some kind of legal protection. If something untoward should occur for say, anything up to for years after being injected, the body overseeing the injecting have full responsibility for maintaining the quality of my life, or to sue the living crap out of that body, whatever works best. Having said that, if I'm not infected - what's the point? After everything I have done to comply with so many of your restrictive edicts.

there is a great history of the provenance of vaccine development; the lengthy quality controls for many years. Well, we haven't had that. So whoever is responsible for the issuing of said vaccines should accept the responsibility of their actions.

the future - again

 so this is a community service announcement. About our well being in the future.

now the writing is on the wall, there is no evidence like all the baseless assertions that were transmitted so let's get some protocols put back into place.

Twitter.

unless it is a monumentally bland community service announcement or a boring celebration of something historically harmless, politicians across the board and of whatever persuasion are hereby banned from tweeting. 

there was a time when there was this concept called the leader of the free world and I appreciated and admired the method of communication when being informed of matters, both domestic and internationally. Then came Trump and the relentless volume of self interested nonsense and disinformation. But what a cheap and tacky method of communication. He really gave the title the respect it deserved via this medium.

the problem is that others are following his method. Our Premier has started dictating his annoyances and desires via tweet. The President in waiting has posted a few tweets for the pure joy of doing so.

so can we give the position and title of political office some small degree of respect again and ban Twitter across the board from politics altogether? Maybe and moreover out of respect to us.

the one thing that galls me out of all of this is he states he is not a politician. Well, here is a prime opportunity to do the one thing that would resonate for ages and with a force second to none.

go away. Let the new mess happen without any obstruction.

the future

 

today I was confronted by the future. I was at a restaurant and was told if I wanted to be seated I would have to scan the code on the table. Because I don't have a smart phone they said they couldn't serve me.

that makes me think about what else they could apply this to. I get the distinct feeling that something is in the post in regards to vaccination. There's already discussion about getting vaccinated and air travel. Do you get the feeling that there are going to be other requirements?

really, I can see it now - the vaccine passport. Unless you have some kind of electronic certification that you have been vaccinated, you're not going anywhere. Or doing anything. There is talk about it already in relation to concerts and sporting events.

there is talk about having enough vaccine to inoculate every Australian three times over. Not much discussion about what are in these vaccines exactly or inherent side effects - just the promise of something. So are the powers that be going to insist on such a promise?

who knows, maybe with the implementation of the vaccine or vaccines, they could create a whole electronic caste system. And here's me with my dumb phone, wanting to make phone calls. How arrogant. 

nothing

so we did it. We have purged ourselves of the virus. Anything else?

I did my count of the for lease signs between Bell and Brunswick Street and it is still sixty three, but there are different situations based on the nature of the business. Wedding dress stores and dress stores in general. They haven't been open for as long as I can remember; a certain amount have closed but others still maintain frontage, but for how long?

the Moreland Hotel hasn't been open since March and I really can't envision a time it will ever be. The word is out that it will change hands at some point. I am two minds about this because although the poker machines can rot in hell, when they have the MMA fighting on it is a ball.

maybe there is some merit in not being mobile to see the amount of places that are closed. A friend of mine lives in Frankston and the place has been decimated. One store is offering rent for one dollar a month just to generate some kind of activity.

Then there are the legal and accounting firms that are closed. How have they changed their practice?
 

get ready

 

In the history of I hope I am wrong, this really must be the moment. Or maybe two moments and both of them involve the United States.

Thanksgiving. The volume of people moving around the country from numerous news broadcasts, people are addicted this concept of normal; going about their everyday lives. 6,972 planes in the sky above North America at Noon ET on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving Well here's a few figures to put a dent in your concept of normal; 13,122,044 corona virus cases and 268,092 deaths. 7,721,096 people have recovered, but that's cold comfort when talking about these numbers. I dread to see the figures in the following weeks.

now I have had some thoughts in the past about the idea of opportunity cost. The cost of doing one thing as opposed to another. The restrictions here have been so punitive and dumb that I not only fear for our future, but moreover, our economic future. Maybe we are the opposite of many countries but I can envision a lot poor people without a virus here. Plus the future is going to be user pays like we have never seen before.

Trump. When he leaves in the not too distant future every faction of identity politics will be out in force with whatever grievance that currently upsets or annoys them. So what will Biden do when the rioting starts? Will he maintain the same kinds of policies we developed towards policing? Keep in mind, they have a shit load of guns

I dread to see the figures in the following weeks.

Pepys diary entries July/August 1666

maybe this could be seen as something of good fortune.The plague hit properly just over a year ago and now deaths via ever smaller circles of association were becoming common place. Instead of general notes conveyed by the Bill of Mortality, word of mouth in relation to small circles of association became the order of the day. Early September the Great Fire of London would change all that. Strange one disaster could purge the disaster of another. 

(4/7)

"Up, and visited very betimes by Mr. Sheply, who is come to town upon business from Hinchingbrooke, where he left all well. I out and walked along with him as far as Fleet Streete, it being a fast day, the usual fast day for the plague, and few coaches to be had. Thanks be to God, the plague is, as I hear, encreased but two this week; but in the country in several places it rages mightily, and particularly in Colchester, where it hath long been, and is believed will quite depopulate the place."

(26/7)

"Up, and to the office, where all the morning. At noon dined at home: Mr. Hunt and his wife, who is very gallant, and newly come from Cambridge, because of the sicknesse, with us." 

Below we witness that there is no inherent logic to the plague, no matter what logic you attempt to apply.

(6/8)

"Up, and to the office a while, and then by water to my Lady Montagu’s, at Westminster, and there visited my Lord Hinchingbroke, newly come from Hinchingbroke, and find him a mighty sober gentleman, to my great content. Thence to Sir Ph. Warwicke and my Lord Treasurer’s, but failed in my business; so home and in Fenchurch-streete met with Mr. Battersby; says he, “Do you see Dan Rawlinson’s door shut up?” (which I did, and wondered). “Why,” says he, “after all the sickness, and himself spending all the last year in the country, one of his men is now dead of the plague, and his wife and one of his mayds sicke, and himself shut up;” which troubles me mightily. So home; and there do hear also from Mrs. Sarah Daniel, that Greenwich is at this time much worse than ever it was, and Deptford too: and she told us that they believed all the towne would leave the towne and come to London; which is now the receptacle of all the people from all infected places. God preserve us! So by and by to dinner, and, after dinner in comes Mrs. Knipp, and I being at the office went home to her, and there I sat and talked with her, it being the first time of her being here since her being brought to bed. I very pleasant with her; but perceive my wife hath no great pleasure in her being here, she not being pleased with my kindnesse to her. However, we talked and sang, and were very pleasant. By and by comes Mr. Pierce and his wife, the first time she also hath been here since her lying-in, both having been brought to bed of boys, and both of them dead." 

a few examples below of just how voracious the plague had become.

(7/8)

"I receive fresh intelligence that Deptford and Greenwich are now afresh exceedingly afflicted with the sickness more than ever."

(9/8)

"In my [way] I inquired, and find Mrs. Rawlinson is dead of the sickness, and her mayde continues mighty ill. He himself is got out of the house. I met also with Mr. Evelyn in the streete, who tells me the sad condition at this very day at Deptford for the plague, and more at Deale (within his precinct as one of the Commissioners for sick and wounded seamen), that the towne is almost quite depopulated."

(17/8)

"Sir John Minnes come home tonight not well, from Chatham, where he hath been at a pay, holding it at Upnor Castle, because of the plague so much in the towne of Chatham. He hath, they say, got an ague, being so much on the water."

(20/8)

"This afternoon I visited Sir J. Minnes, who, poor man, is much impatient by these few days’ sickness, and I fear indeed it will kill him."

(21/8)

"I passed down into the Hall, and there hear that Mr. Bowles, the grocer, after 4 or 5 days’ sickness, is dead, and this day buried." 

part of me, having read all this makes me think exactly how rampant the plague could have been without the great fire.

which category are you?

 

we had the restrictions changed in Victoria a few days ago, and lo and behold it led to.... confusion. Not just one but a whole range of uncertainties. I don't know what it is about our premier; maybe it's the way he tells them. So what's your newly found outlook towards masks?

there's the person who wears a mask, whether it be indoors or out.

there's the person who doesn't wear a mask, whether it be indoors or out.

the person who wears a mask under their chin, in any environment and just in case they have to be told to put it on.

the person who does or doesn't wear a mask in all kinds of different places, depending on their mood.

finally the person who has no idea what the hell is going on.

I must admit that I felt some hesitation on the first day; not because of compliance but because of wearing them for so long I felt naked.

personally, I find the whole thing confusing for one important factor - mental exhaustion.