Or rather, when will it be declared endemic rather than a pandemic? And realistically, if it is after mass vaccination, that is not soon. Whereas some places have close to 90% vaccination rates, we, here in Africa, at last check, are at 30%.
How will this post pandemic world look like? Masks everywhere? Booster shots every 3-4 months? Dead economic sectors.
In unrelated news, Moi, the late president is said to have left behind $3 billion worth of assets. Man was stealing for 24 years while the rest of the nation was impoverished. It is true he followed the footsteps of the first thief. Maybe these thieving heads of states should read Tolstoy’s how much land does a person need. Maybe they will check their appetite for public goods.
Whatever happens, stay alive.
Random thoughts 
Feeling trapped by all this even with having our boosters last month. It will never be over for us at our age, & whoever thought we’d spend our senior years like this?
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It must be harder for seniors, I guess, as compared to the general population
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It is, when we’re already strapped with health & mobility issues. The weather stops us as well as the pandemic, so we can’t even get on the scooters to go for a coffee, or a nice meal out. Take out is just not the same.
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Letโs hope the pandemic catches a break and you have better sunset days
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Not holding my breath on that though…..
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I have been sad that I have no grandchildren … (not my fault of course). Now I am glad I don’t. What the young ones are going through is sad. Of course they won’t/don’t know any difference.
Fortunately I am not a gad about person. I don’t need the socializing. Happy to sit around thinking about what I couldn’t remember doing or thinking about five minutes ago. ๐
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We don’t socialize either, but the freedom to just get out on the scooters is annoying when we have to make sure we’re avoiding people wherever, being careful what we touch, sanitizing……I want less work as we age, not more.
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True! It’s too bad I’m usually the one doing the avoiding …. some people don’t even try to avoid.
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Exactly, which is why we stay home. Groceries can now be delivered here, which has been great as deep snow has mucked up scootering anyway. I haven’t been out of the house since our boosters Dec. 3rd. It’s getting a bit old…..
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Now that’s tiring.
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Yes, the treadmill & exerbike are not the same as getting out of the house.
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They can not compare at all
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Not even close.
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I find running on a track boring. Running on a treadmill would bore me twice over
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I can’t run at all & can only walk a little, so I mainly use the exerbike, but both are boring even with listening to music.
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I prefer where the landscape changes, the terrain changes and all. Indoor exercises are just not my thing
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Exactly, but at our stage, we don’t have a choice, & we need to keep moving somehow.
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That’s all the pleasure of old age. Trying to recall what you were to do when you left your chair a few minutes ago
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I probably won’t be around when you experience this pleasure.
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It seems like as more of the world gets vaccinated (Google says we’re at 50% overall right now), we slowly taper off into that endemic status, where it becomes like the seasonal flu. But I don’t think anyone knows for sure.
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I think its the uncertainty that’s annoying.
And will masks be done away with even then?
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It does seem like, for most of us, the masks are the dividing line between still being in pandemic mode and moving on. Although I personally wouldn’t mind them sticking around for plane flights.
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I have seen fellas who wear the masks well at the beginning of the flight but end up with it at the chin.
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Yeah, apparently a lot of men (it’s almost always men) are too delicate a flower to wear a mask correctly for any length of time.
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And they look ridiculous.
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Nature always restores its equilibrium, but this time humanity might end up on the less favourite site of the equation.
On the second point, kings, dictators and now the modern heads of states are all in the business of enriching themselves. It only depends on how well they can conceal the booty and in what kind of form it was received. There is only one solution for this kind of thievery.
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Nature has had us on this one.
No wonder these fellows don’t die!
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Aotearoa is at 93% double vaccinated and 95% single vaccinated, from virtually zero at the beginning of August. To be honest life has continued much as it always has apart from the mandatory wearing of masks in some public venues. I still struggle wearing a mask for more than 10-15 minutes continuously as the stress gets too much after that length of time, but so far I’ve managed to always find an opportunity to remove it for a minute or so when needed. To date it’s only been necessary to wear a mask one or twice a week and no more than for an hour maximum. Tomorrow might be a test for me as I’m taking the grandsons on a two hour riverboat cruise.
Covid isn’t yet endemic here, but no doubt in time it will be. The omicron variant hasn’t penetrated the border yet. Most new cases continue to be new arrivals to the country, most of the with omicron. New arrivals are subjected to mandatory 14 days quarantine which is why it hasn’t (yet) spread to the community Our infection rate is at 8 per 100K people, including new arrivals, compared with 1,216 and 1,709 per 100K for the UK and US respectively. As long as it stays at about that rate, I think it’s something I can live with.
As for political corruption, you have my sympathies. I’m fortunate to be living in the world’s least corrupt nation. For example, a few years ago, a senior politician was sentenced to six years imprisonment on corruption charges for using his position as a Member of Parliament to obtain a work permit for an immigrant who had worked for him in his birth country of Samoa, and for improperly using his influence as a Member of Parliament. More recently two senior government ministers were fired for breaking covid-19 lockdown restrictions. One minister drove his family not to the nearest beach, but (gasp) to a beach 20 km further away. The other decided to ride a mountain bike trail during the April 2020 lockdown. Hazardous activity was banned during the lockdown as an accident would require the use of emergency services, thereby putting emergency workers in unnecessary risk of covid transmission.
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1st on covid, it must be good to live in an island at the end of the world!.
On corruption, here ministers, mps never resign. They would fight to the last even when the best course of action were resignation.
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Living on an island has many disadvantages during a pandemic – being at the very, very end of long and damaged or broken supply lines is one that comes immediately to mind. But on the other hand our isolation and lack of land borders means we can have better control on who arrives. Problem is almost all arrivals are NZ citizens escaping a covid ravaged world and bringing the darned virus with them. The Wife wants to ban returnees {and she’s an immigrant!) but the NZ Bill Of Rights Act prohibits the government from taking such drastic action.
When government is as open as ours, it’s difficult for corruption to gain a foothold.
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If prices of goods and services haven’t changed much, delayed arrival of goods isn’t a big problem. Unless they are emergency supplies.
I am not surprised with the wife’s reaction to returnees.
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Living in NZ has always been expensive due to the fact that we’re at the very end of every supply chain. Covid has made it much worse. Many supply chains have been shortened and no longer reach here ๐ฆ
Supermarket shelves remain full but with reduced selection and with many imported products being out of stock for weeks or months on end. Manufacturers face serious shortages of raw materials as most are imported. Most seriously affected is the construction industry where shortages have exacerbated a serious housing crisis, making the cost of housing here one of the most expensive in the world. If we sold our home at the moment, we could get up to three times as much as we would have in March 2019.
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We are net importers of goods and this has made life quite expensive. Shelves, fortunately look as they have been in years past. For the construction industry, costs of certain inputs have shot through the ceiling
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It may be a perpetual problem now that we have the ability to see these infinitely small changes in a virus. Sometimes less is betterโmaybe
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If I understand you, we’d freak out if we lived life in a microscope.
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Eventually we will have to live with it, one way or the other
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I think the hype is waning in many areas. I’m currently under the weather with something flu-like. I see no need for a test, I’ll just lay low for 5 days.
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Get well quick, Arnold
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How will it end? Covid-19 will be found dead of a self-inflected injection wounds in the back of its spike proteins during the 2024 DNC primaries shortly after announcing it has found some new dirt on the Clintons.
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Oh Ron!
I have missed you.
That’s such a long wait, mate. Can’t it happen sooner.
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What can I say? Sometimes work and real life limit the time available for polluting the Internet.
Happy 2022! And happy riding. May the wind always be at your back and the sun upon your face.
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Happy 2022 my friend and many good days ahead
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Maybe you are right that things have to collapse. Have been reading about the horrible recent history of Rwanda-but the country seems to be on the mend? Hope Kenya does not have to go that dark
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Rwanda had two nations and was set up for conflict by Belgium. On last count, we had 43 nations within the Kenyan state and while we have experienced a devastating state sponsored violence, I donโt see how it could get to Rwanda level. The hubris of the governing class is the problem. They are so detached from reality it is appalling.
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I look forward to the day when we will no longer have to deal with sickness. And we will then live here on earth in peaceful conditions. A true promise from the Bible. Isaiah 33:24-And no resident will say: โI am sickโ
Psalms 37:11-But the meek will possess the earth, And they will find exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.
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You will have to wait. Men have desired many things that didn’t happen and the same is true of the men who penned the bible
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It will end when the perpetrators are imprisoned or dead.
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That is not happening soon
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I know.
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