Lost Property - Anyone seen the Mayor's brain?

Sigh.... our mindless and malfunctioning mayor has managed to blow another microchip and forced me to write something on a Sunday evening when I should be putting my feet up. 

He and his Thoughtless Moronic & Desperate (TMD) party seem to have insisted the government state a black and white policy on Covid, a staggeringly inane demand, which coming from a doctor defies belief.

Although being a one-trick pony (ie the one small thing he was apparently good at with heart conditions) I guess we might forgive him for not understanding the broader issues of actually running a country. 

On the other hand, perhaps we should not.

He seems to suggest the government should state one of two policies, being…

1) To close down all quarantine and personal protection protocols and live with Covid. 

2) To aim for zero Covid cases.

Deep breath, as it’s hard to emphasise the absurdity of such a demand. 

Zero cases is an impossibility, particularly of a modern scourge. 

Erstwhile killers like Smallpox and Tuberculosis (TB) have largely been eradicated from developed countries but after decades of work and vaccinations. They are still a huge problem in countries like India, to take but one example. 

Lifting all restrictions immediately is possible. Britain has done just that, but at the cost of a spike in infections to record levels, although hospitalisations and deaths are not rising due to the vaccination programme. 

However, that doesn’t mean people don’t get sick and have to stay off work, or get sick enough to tie up doctors in order to get prescription medication.

As a result of Covid infections, the British economy is suffering as workers are taking time off, and there have been big issues with anything from truck driver to nursing staff shortages causing huge logistical problems.

Remember, when even a single worker takes a day off sick, the economy of a country suffers in terms of production and output.  

In Taiwan, which has an enviable record of handling Covid, I would guess the government doesn’t want to throw all its good work away by risking hurting the economy by allowing a spike in cases and having to deal with a big hit to production and output.

There is no black and while policy with Covid policy as Dr Dismal seems to think. It is naive to believe otherwise, and as a doctor he should know better. 

It is a shade of policy grey which needs careful consideration and a well timed and gradual response. The government is clearly taking its foot off the gas with regards to Covid restrictions and rightly so.

It is balancing caution with the desire to get back to normal, while not wrecking other things, most particularly the economy. It is a slow, steady and pragmatic process and that is good governance.  

To demand they go one way or the other is simply ludicrous. As Mark Twain famously said “The Only Two Certainties In Life Are Death And Taxes.” 

The bottom line is this is desperate politics by the TMD who have no real substance as a party and are trying to attack something, in this case a government which has delivered a world beating response to Covid. 

It is a lost cause which only the most hardened and hard-headed of its supporters won’t be able to see through.   

I put a self-imposed scale of idiocy on the Doc as I’d only be getting three hours sleep a night if I had to respond to every one of his daft or idiotic pronouncements. 

It looks like I either have to revise my stupid scale, or hope his advisors sit him down - yes, perhaps with a cup of milky tea to keep him calm - and tell him what an idiot he is making of himself on a regular basis and help him at least say something sensible and constructive for a change. 

Tinkerty Tonk…