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,...

There’s nothing like a good pandemic to flush out, exactly what kind of people we really are. In doing so of course, we also discover the calibre of human being that we have all around us. COVID19, a microscopic virus has put the entire human race under the microscope. Unnaturally cooping us together, this nasty Coronavirus doesn’t take any prisoners, when it comes to highlighting our shortcomings. In short, are we positive, thumbs up ‘glass half fullers’ or a bunch of miserable ‘glass half emptiers’? Let the Lockdown Games begin! COVID19 a killer you can survive. Yes, COVID19 is terrifying but you can come out the other side and live to tell the tale. It’s not many diseases that have brave nurses the world over, as frightened as the patients they’re caring for. When it has you in its grip with a fever, rasping cough, abdominal and chest pains, coupled with a shortness of breath, you really think you’re not long for this world. When you start bringing up blood and your te...

You Still Alive and Kicking? I checked in with my precious older sister Esme and my brother-in-law Ray last night. It was morning in Blighty and evening in Oz. And guess what popped into the conversation? The friggin’ Black Death! Like the rest of the world, I didn’t see COVID19 coming. Or for that matter, the Black Death being a topic of conversation for my elderly, kith and kin to happily chat about! Obviously, being in their late 70s and early 80s, they didn’t actually remember first-hand the bubonic plague but it was a surreal experience non-the-less. 'Which is worse, Coronavirus or the plague?' Search me? I was just phoning to see if you were alright! They’re both in the sweet-spot, demographic for the virus to have its evil way, so you can understand my concern. A Short History of Virus. As a life-long student of history, it got me thinking about the similarities between the two. Both spread rapidly between countries around the globe, catching governmen...