Who's over COVID19? Who's had enough of masks, comical fist bump/handshakes, while going stir-crazy with caged-up kids and other halves? The trouble is, this pesky strain of Coronavirus won't go away quietly. To defeat it, we the human race have to get the number of COVID19 cases to zero. Yes zero. Everywhere.  The thing about viruses is that they don't do border control. They spread faster than toupees in a hurricane. The Spanish Flu of 1918 reached remote islands within months, without the aid of modern air travel. In fact, all it needed to travel was air itself. So, it's down to us to stop COVID19 from returning again and again, like an unwelcome uncle who seems to crash permanently on your sofa. The really tricky thing about COVID19 is that the total number of cases isn’t known. Only cases confirmed by a Coronavirus test are actually known. Databases are being built so that visualisations of the curve can explain if we humans are making progress. The only way to...

If you think where you live has been hit hard by COVID19, spare a thought for the poor people of Latin America. Cases of Coronavirus have been rising acutely. Back in May I wrote about COVID19 outbreaks in Brazil. If anything, things have got worse, with over 3 million confirmed cases of Coronavirus. Second only to Trump's America. It doesn’t get much better when you look elsewhere in the region. Picture a league table of the Top 10 COVID19 countries in the world, 5 of them would be Latin American. Mexico, Chile, Columbia and Peru, now join Brazil in having major outbreaks, with each country’s hospitals, groaning under the influx of new cases. It was thought that the first confirmed Latin American case occurred in Brazil back in February. Recently evidence has emerged that the first cases actually occurred in January. The virus seems to have found exactly the right conditions to thrive and flourish. Spreading down through Central to South America, while racking up over 5 millio...

The world has a choice, develop herd immunity and let COVID19 run its course. Leaving the world with a massive body count. With few escaping the loss of a friend or a family member. OR… The human race searches for the 21 st  Century holy grail. A vaccine, that can be distributed on a massive scale to save a significant amount of humanity. Obviously, the latter is more attractive, so how are we doing on our quest? The race for a COVID19 vaccine is on! I better kick off with a word of caution, the development of a safe vaccine for a new illness like COVID19, can take up to 18 months to get to us. That’s with accelerated approval and research moving at unprecedented speed. Saying that, the first COVID-cure-off-the-rank, of course looks like coming from China. This vaccine is being developed by two giant Chinese pharmaceutical companies and it has just completed a second phase of testing. They say it might be ready to go to market by the end of 2020, which is astonishing. In fact,...

The U.S. now holds the world record for the highest number of its citizens infected by COVID19. If there was a podium at the Olympic Coronavirus Games, President Donald would be standing atop of the tree, proudly taking the applause of a huge, imaginary crowd of his supporters. (Not unlike his phantom inauguration throng!) His view is that America’s 1.5 million cases, together with a staggering 92,000 deaths, is some sort of spiky red ‘BADGE OF HONOUR’? Spinning is winning! Like an expert spin doctor, President Donald tried to explain his country’s Coronavirus record. ‘You know when you say that we lead in cases, that's because we have more testing than anybody else. So, when we have a lot of cases, I don't look at that as a bad thing. I look at that as, in a certain respect, as being a good thing because it means our testing is much better.' Duh! According to an Oxford University scientific publication, the U.S. lags globally behind other countries in testing, on a per cap...

Do nations end up with the leaders they deserve? Possibly. But if the COVID19 pandemic has done anything, it’s thrown world leaders into sharp relief, revealing exactly what kind of leadership qualities they actually possess. Coronavirus offers a politician no cover whatsoever to hide behind. They either deal with it or they don’t. F***wits get found out! Maskless Mike? This week the Vice-President of the United States, Mike Pence visited a Coronavirus Testing Facility in Minnesota. He chose to ignore their regulations and not wear a protective mask. Later he said. ‘Since I don't have the coronavirus, I thought it'd be a good opportunity for me to be here, to be able to speak to these researchers, these incredible health care personnel and look them in the eye and say thank you.’ Last time I looked you don’t wear a COVID19 protective mask over your eyes, Mr Vice-President. America First. Minnesota Last? Pence was the only one inside the facility not to wear a face mas...

In an election year, President Donald Trump has delivered on his 2016 promise of Making America Great Again. The U.S. has the GREATEST rate of COVID19 infection on the planet. With the numbers of Americans contracting the virus, growing rather than flattening. Like some demented Mr  Miyagi , Donald’s replaced ‘Wax On, Wax Off’, with ‘Lie On, Lie Off’. Furiously deflecting COVID19 body blows, that might damage his monstrous ego in the polls. Scapegoat Hunting?   Look over there The World Health Organisation, ‘called it wrong.’ W.H.O. actually called it on the 30th of January, declaring COVID19 a public health emergency. A whole month later Teflon Don tweeted, ‘The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA’. Eventually the penny dropped and Trump declared a national emergency, 43 days after W.H.O. called it. Maybe Donald’s hearing is going too? Testing Times!   Testing has been described as the window onto Coronavirus and its spread. Without testing, no-one...