Elephants ... can’t you see them?

 I have been astonished (not really) by the lack of foresight and forethought exhibited by politicians - and their advisers - in recent times. It almost feels as if they are clueless and, as Boris Johnson is often accused of doing, they do what the last “expert” they speak to tells them. Enormous publicity is given to the vaccine rollout - and the statistics of the dead, dying, infected and the like - but that’s where the elephant is.

The first elephant moment is the much-heralded immunity to coronavirus. The definition of the word is

: the quality or state of being immune especially : a condition of being able to resist a particular disease especially through preventing development of a pathogenic microorganism or by counteracting the effects of its products ...

The man on top of the Clapham omnibus, according to much of the popular press, believes that when he is vaccinated he cannot catch the virus. He also believes that he cannot infect other people, and that he cannot fall ill with the virus. All the preceding beliefs are, of course, not true. 

And so, what is the end result? The youngsters completely ignore the restrictions imposed on them by the government (see photographs of the Easter weekend in many of the newspapers), and everyone is agitating for the country to get back to normal. Vaccine passports are mooted by the government, and the idea rapidly recedes when a backbench resistance is apparent in the Tory party, and the mixed messages continue apace.

There is an understandable desire for people to take holidays in the sun. Cyprus, Greece and other desirable locations announce they are open for business and are bending over backwards to attract British tourists who are believed to want to unleash a torrent of money. The UK government, on the other hand, is unlikely to allow holidays to countries where the number of infections are rising (as they are here) and where vaccinations are proceeding slowly. Whether this is due to the EU’s inefficiency or not is debatable?

Ann has had both her vaccinations, for which we are grateful, and I have had my first but have to wait until June for the second one (a delay prescribed by AstraZeneca). In the following weeks we shall be benefiting from some “immunity” and we are told that if we are infected by the virus, we are less likely to be seriously ill. Open Cyprus to tourists, and that seems the inevitable path being pursued by the government here (under enormous pressure from the hospitality industry), with elections just round the corner, and by Autumn we shall be back into lockdown.

I had a conference with the elephant and he believed that the damage to the economy was a price worth paying. But, of course, he is eternally employed - sitting in on government briefings and laughing his head off. 

And so the cry goes up,

που είναι ο ελέφαντας τώρα