Special Report: The Pandemic WAAAAY West of the Border

 

[Today's post is by Corona-zona Senior Southeast Asia Correspondent PBR]

A report from Singapore? On COVID? You got it! Why? Because I am bored out of my brains. Unlike others, I can’t embrace boredom. Humanity is a doing thing. And boredom is doing my head in.  

COVID-19 is not as much of a problem if you are on a roomy island with awesome outdoors and can manage incoming folk (like New Zealand, but certainly not the UK). COVID-19 sucks if you are on an island that is 280 sq miles with a population of almost 6 million.  For perspective, that’s about a quarter of the size of Rhode Island and with almost six times the population. With fewer White folk.

Socially, things are a tad rubbish for interaction, but it’s not like the rest of the world. Cinemas are open if you want to be in an enclosed space with folk for an hour and a half. Alcoholics can rejoice as early shutting hours for pubs have led to beer deals in the afternoon.  Beaches are open, though you have to book a slot if you intend to go on the weekend. There are also squares on the beach demarcated with tape to show where you should sit to get your tan on, but it’s just a suggestion (I go a lot, trust me, no one cares).

If you are interested in these things, for entertainment see here, and if you are desperate to go to the nation’s nicest beaches on the weekend, go here. By the way, you can do most things except that the state wants you to have a tracker on you – as explained by the BBC.

For you capitalists, the attempts by Singapore at being the international poster boy for business as usual has flopped. The desire to bring the World Economic Forum to Singapore has gone south. And face-to-face meetings are not going to happen for business folk who absolutely believe in-person meetings are required for deals to be made.

Singapore is a great place to live not because it’s a great place to live. It’s great because it is Asia-lite. But more importantly, it’s a jump off to places like Bali, Indonesia and Changmai, Thailand. Being stuck here, one realises it’s rather pants. How many variants and discussions on the national dish can one have? 

Oh, you may want to know about how Singapore is doing with regard to COVID. According to the government, overall there have been 59,780 cases, 59,641 recovered, and 29 deaths.  According to Our World in Data, on Valentine’s Day there were 14.4 new cases per day on a seven-day trailing average.  That equates to 0.24 cases per 100K population.  For comparison, the United States had 90416.3 new cases, which equates to 27.28 per 100K. That’s more than two orders of magnitude difference lah.

Let the host of this blog know if you want specifics about anything. I’ll try my best to respond. I am, if it has not come across, terribly bored.


Popular posts from this blog

Looks Like Immune Responses are Enduring After All

Image
 For some time, public health officials have fretted about whether immunity to COVID-19, acquired via infection or vaccination would stick.  Studies showed rapid declines in antibodies during recovery from infection and thereafter . It turns out that this concern was overblown. A study just released says bone marrow plasma cells are a persistent source of protective antibodies, and that "circulating resting memory B cells directed against the S protein were detected in the convalescent individuals."   Another study , yet to be reviewed, suggests that vaccines boost this effect. In fact, some are suggesting this situation this could actually mean  lifetime immunity .   Whether the same thing happens with vaccination is not clear. Most estimates suggest that vaccine immunity will last about a year . More pessimistic estimates putting the protection period at six months .  The possible shorter time frame, plus the appearance of the new variants, ha...
Read more

Another One Bites the Dust

Image
Hi all. Stepping out of retirement for a moment to say that the day has finally arrived. After four years of successfully avoiding COVID-19 infection I had a positive test yesterday. Symptoms are very mild—I've had worse colds. The provider at urgent care said almost all the cases they are seeing are the same. Mild symptoms may also be due to the fact that I had the original vaccine then the two boosters. All this time I thought I might be a NOVID —one of those people who never get the bug. But no, it must have been my assiduous mask wearing and avoidance of high-risk situations when things were bad. So here's double middle fingers to all the kooks who think masks don't work (I've not been wearing masks for months now). I don't know what variant I have but it's likely JN.1. It is said to be extraordinarily contagious and accounts for 60% of cases worldwide . It also tends to produce mild infections like the one I have.  This article claims that right now every...
Read more

Happy Inject Yourself with Bleach Day!

Image
  It's hard to believe, but it was two years ago today that our moron of a former president took to a news conference to share his awesome ideas about how to combat COVID-19 infections. He suggested we inject the victims with disinfectant, and put "powerful lights" inside their bodies (somehow) to cure them. Here is a  Sarah Cooper mime  of the performance in case you've forgotten how cringe-worthy it was. His poor pandemic expert Dr. Deborah Birx stood next to him, looking on in horror. She has since said that she didn't say anything at the time because her military background taught her to never make her commander look bad in public. Maybe that's a good reason not to have ex-military people in positions like hers. I say that because when a president says something ignorant there are plenty of gullible people who will take it seriously. Like the people who actually misted their body with, inhaled vapors of, gargled with, or drank cleaning products because o...
Read more