During my lunch break the other day (and absolutely not when I should have been working) I flicked on the television to see what was happening at the tennis. The Australian Open is currently on and I always like to check in just to see whether Nick Kyrgios has finally snapped and is swinging from a light fixture like a baboon. Instead of a borderline bipolar tennis player having a meltdown I was treated to the sight of the premier of the surviving population of Victoria solemnly informing the citizenry that they had cocked up the quarantine yet again and as a result the entire population of Melbourne was being sent to its room.
This wasn't due to COVID, oh dear me no. This was due to the new, improved and super sexy COVID which is apparently far more contagious. This variant has taken Britain by storm and is currently on an extended tour of Europe. Apparently Brexit didn't come quickly enough. The premier assured the population that the current lockdown was largely a preventative measure designed to get on top of the outbreak quickly and "protect the most vulnerable members of the population" or at least such of the most vulnerable members of the population as survived the previous outbreak.
While Melbourne enjoys a preview screening of Quarantine II: The Return attention in the rest of the country has been focussed on the vaccine. Or rather it has been focussed on the vaccine shaped holes in our pharmaceutical supply chain. Despite the government boasting that we were at the front of the queue for a vaccine it would appear that we are the last inhabited continent (penguins don't count; sorry Antarctica) to receive it. There has been criticism and muttering about the impressive vaccination process of other countries such as Britain. As far as Britain is concerned that's a little unfair. Britain's COVID prevention measures were so wretched that they had very little choice except to grab every needle in the country and stick them into its citizens regardless of the contents.
As for the rest, well this is the problem when you don't actually make things yourself. You rely on other people to make them and then you rely on further people to ship them to you. Finally you rely on yet more people to unpack them without accidentally dropping them on the floor. If anything gets in the way of such a process (such as a pack semi hysterical bureaucrats having a fit after they buggered up their own vaccination process) then you suddenly find the queue is very long and you just have to wait. The good news is that the EU has now graciously permitted the drug company to ship the product we've already ordered (and which was made in Belgium) so, assuming the US navy doesn't hijack the vessel on the high seas we should be receiving the vaccine at some point in the not too distant future.
While I wait for the pride of Belgium's pharmaceutical industry to reach us I will have to be patient and take solace in the little things. Little things like the fact that I don't live in Melbourne. Mind you I was taking solace from that fact well before COVID.
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