In somewhat timely fashion, a day after a new coronavirus variant has been reported, I had my vaccine booster today. At this stage there is no information available at to whether the existing vaccines will be effective against this new mutation and they may only offer reduced protection due to the changes present in the variant. This is worrying stuff. We’ve had several months now here in the UK where things have felt pretty much back to normal in many regards, and I would be disappointed if we were to require restrictions, or even lockdowns, to be re-introduced. Disappointed, but not surprised. Also not against them.
Where we’ve had previous spikes in infections the general concensus amongst the scientific and medical communities has been that we need to act early to prevent serious disruption and increases in infections and deaths. Unfortunately, it has always felt like our government have waitied until the last moment to to take necessary action, meaning that things have escalated much more than they might have done had we done something sooner.
I would like to see mandatory mask use back in force. For the majority of people this is an inconvenience, but not a particular hardship. If it helps reduce infections then I think it should be reintroduced. It’s a quick and easy thing to do and far less impactful than having to close businesses, schools, and prevent gatherings. The last thing people will want are the same restrictions we had last winter, where people were prevented from visiting loved ones over the Christmas period, and then being in lockdown for months. Mask wearing would be a prudent measure to take while we get a better understanding of how the new variant reacts to immunity (whether from vaccines or from the antibodies previously recovered).
This is the first post in a couple of weeks where I’ve not really spoken about Stan or how I’m feeling. I’m not ready to stop posting pictures of him on here just yet though. 
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