Your Eyewitness woke up to the news that the US reported over 1 MILLION cases of COVID 19 on a single day – last Monday, the third day of the New Year. That’s all we needed, after being battered for two years by this blasted virus! To paraphrase one king who was supreme over all he surveyed at the time, your Eyewitness raises his hands to the heavens and pleads, “Will no one deliver us from this pestilential virus?”
Now, your Eyewitness is, of course, concerned about what’s playing out in the States. After all, most of his relatives – like the rest of us – are living over there. And they’re “catching” the virus better than Gus Logie ever did with those nicks at silly point, back in the day! But he’s more concerned about us right HERE in our dear mudland, since whatever the US catches, we can be sure we’ll be getting it in spades here before we can say “Rohan “Babulall” Kanhai”!
And lo and behold, our local news declared the next day that our number of COVID cases was 485 – more than four times the previous day’s score, and our highest total ever! It surpassed our peak from last September when we had our last wave. And whether we like it or not, it is a harbinger of what is in store for us. Now, the info we’re getting from the States is that the upsurge in infections is due to the Omicron variant, that’s three times more transmissible than that last Delta variant, but it doesn’t appear it’s as deadly.
However, we can’t take this premise for granted where we’re concerned, cause it might be related to their high vaccination rate. 72% have been vaccinated twice, of which 21% have been “boosted”. For us, only 37% have received two jabs, and barely 1.5% got the booster shot.
And if that wasn’t enough bad news, out of France we’ve just been informed that – while Omicron was distinguished by 37 mutations on its spikes, which determine how fast they can get into our cells – a new variant, unofficially dubbed IHU with 46 mutations, has showed up! As to whether it’s more benign or deadlier than Omicron or Delta, we’ll soon know.
Now, your Eyewitness isn’t getting all morbid in doling out all this news about COVID: he just knows his fellow Guyanese. They really need to step up to the crease and score some shots for the nation by getting vaccinated. Remember when we were warned to eat our food cause kids elsewhere were going hungry?
Well, there are entire countries that want vaccines but just can’t get them. Let herd immunity be our patriotic duty!
…in the World Order
We had to be living under a rock if we didn’t realise that things are “a changin’” in the World Order. We’ve all been hearing about the rise of China, that’s breathing down the US’ neck on the economic front with their Belt and Road Initiative to tie down trade relations with the rest of the world. But while China’s been in the news, the other East Asian Tigers have continued to eat away at the US manufacturing prowess – right in the heart of America!
We just got news that Toyota displaced GM as #1 car maker in US!! For almost a century, GM represented American manufacturing might, as its galaxy of cars dominated the roads of the world. The saying was, “What is good for GM is good for America”! But Toyota sold 2.332 million vehicles in the US in 2021, compared with 2.218 million for GM.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Hyundai’s U.S. sales last year rose 19% to more than 738,000 vehicles!
Oi Vey!!
…on noise
Your Eyewitness is all for banning firecrackers because of the effect of their noise on the health and wellbeing off pets.
But he didn’t hear any protests about the GDF’s year end barrage of fireworks? They didn’t upset any pets?
