Seasonal changes.

Seasonal changes are not all weather related. Now that South Africa is off the RED LIST, a new season awaits us.

It has taken just slightly more than a hundred years from the great Spanish Flu of 1918, H1N1, to infect an estimated 500 million people and killing an estimated 50 million. Not having vaccinations and antibiotics to treat the secondary infection left the population with little more to do other than non-pharmaceutical intervention such as isolation, quarantine and personal hygiene.

Little changes in one hundred years. I recall having classmates with callipers and braces with legs that could not support them, brought on by the crippling Polio virus, a virus that was almost eliminated from this planet except for the religious leaders in the most northern parts of Pakistan. The reasons given are not far from the reasons given today by naysayers. One of the pictures one gets is the constant images of persons being jabbed by a needle on television. Many people are afraid of being jabbed and will resort to any reasoning to avoid it.

The current Covid-2 virus is also novel. It also has infected huge swaths of the human population given the improved movement of people globally. Initially, only non-pharmaceutical intervention until, voila, modern technology not only came up with a vaccine but with a messenger RNA variety. The numbers are coming in. The data is painting a picture that shows that it works. Vaccine passports for travel and social gatherings are immerging.

A new season is about to enter our sensibilities. A positive (or negative testing) movement toward economic recovery. A recovery of what makes us who we are. People who gather, hug, laugh, share, dance and sing.

A time to hold hands again and build a better future for all.