Scientists mystified, wary, as Africa avoids COVID disaster.

When the coronavirus first emerged last year, health officials feared the pandemic would sweep across Africa, killing millions. Although it’s still unclear what COVID-19’s ultimate toll will be, that catastrophic scenario has yet to materialize in Zimbabwe or much of the continent….

There is something “mysterious” going on in Africa that is puzzling scientists, said Wafaa El-Sadr, chair of global health at Columbia University. “Africa doesn’t have the vaccines and the resources to fight COVID-19 that they have in Europe and the U.S., but somehow they seem to be doing better,” she said.

They also don’t seem to have Dan Andrews which is a very big plus and they do have Ivermectin which is another.

Two articles on Jews just came my way across the net, each with a story of its own but each with a very different theme. First this, which may be of more general interest: This wasn’t a political protest – it was shameful mob behaviour. This is the sub-head to tell you what it is about: “The hounding of Tzipi Hotovely [Israel’s ambassador to Britain] confirmed how prejudiced anti-Israel sentiment has become”. I will draw only one para from the story but you can read the rest for yourself if it interests you.

It is very difficult to watch something like the mob harassment of Ms Hotovely and not wonder if this is more an outburst of prejudice than a display of political displeasure. It is difficult to know for a fact that Israeli representatives like Ms Hotovely are always singled out for special opprobrium, treated virtually as the most evil political actors in the world, and not consider that there is at least an element of anti-Semitism here. It is hard to see Israel constantly being talked up as the most toxic nation on Earth – as the puppeteer of Western imperialism, the bringer of doom to global affairs – and not contemplate the possibility that for some people the Jewish State now plays the same role the Jews once played. That is, it is viewed as a singularly malevolent entity, controlling world affairs, consumed by bloodlust.

Brendan O’Neill should be commended for this article, but he unfortunately is near unique on seeing this issue for what it is.

The second article is by Juliet Moses with a perhaps enigmatic title – Sorry, that’s not a holocaust – in which she tries to point out that the word itself represents a unique and terrifying moment in history for which no comparisons are possible or legitimate. She is reacting to the following statement:

” Trans people are in the middle of a holocaust’.”

This is the point she is trying to make.

The ramifications of the Holocaust are ongoing. The Jewish worldwide population (some 15 million) is still not back to pre-Holocaust levels. Survivors still live. Research continues; documents, artefacts and photos are unearthed. Alleged Nazis go on trial or live undetected. Restitution claims persist. Yet, at the same time, there is increasing Holocaust denial and trivialisation. Since the pandemic, invoking the Holocaust for political point-scoring has reached absurd heights. The more it is universalised, the more its weight and meaning are devalued and the more the unique Jewish experience is erased….

When people who are not victims of the Holocaust use that word to describe their experience, a comparison of suffering inevitably ensues. I don’t want to get into a victimhood competition. I don’t know what it is like to be transgender, but I do know they are not suffering a ‘holocaust’ in any way the word has ever been used. Their experience is unique, and different to Jewish people, black people, or anyone else, and will vary between themselves. That experience should be respected, but not at the expense of or through the erasure of others’ experience or the appropriation of others’ suffering.

One of the major reasons for recalling The Holocaust is to ensure that a similar horror does not recur, which specifically relates to the murder of Jews because they are Jews. That is why this second story is so closely related to the first.

This is growing into a worldwide story about an issue that is occurring everywhere but has first been taken note of in Western Australia: The hospitals in Australia are being overrun. Not from Covid. And no one can explain why. People can explain why, all right, but don’t actually want to.

And then there’s this, also from today: Something Really Strange Is Happening At Hospitals All Over America. Here’s the first para:

In a year that has been filled with so many mysteries already, I have another very odd one to share with you.  Emergency rooms are filled to overflowing all over America, and nobody can seem to explain why this is happening.  Right now, the number of new COVID cases in the United States each day is less than half of what it was just a couple of months ago.  That is really good news, and many believe that this is a sign that the pandemic is fading.  Let us hope that is true.  With less people catching the virus, you would think that would mean that our emergency rooms should be emptying out, but the opposite is actually happening.  All across the country, emergency rooms are absolutely packed, and in many cases we are seeing seriously ill patients being cared for in the hallways because all of the ER rooms are already full.

And then from Western Australia. This is what the Premier of WA said.

Our hospitals are under enormous pressure. This is the same in [the rest of Australia]. This has been something no one has ever seen before, the growth in demand in our hospitals, why it is is hard, hard to know… There is huge numbers of people coming through the door, so we’re doing everything we can to try to manage it.

Not Covid but the after-effects of the vaxxines seems to be a probable cause but no one is saying so. Here’s one of the comments:

Yes, it’s amazing how all the reasons [for taking the vaxxine] are nothing to do with health, at all. My own GP, even while assessing me for chest pain and breathing difficulties that I’ve been experiencing since the first shot, couldn’t understand why I wasn’t going to get the second vaccination. “Because that’s what you need when you travel or enrol at universities”, “So you’re prepared to lose your job over this?”. Nothing about health. Nothing at all. Not to mention trying to brush off my symptoms as a post-nasal drip. And saying that I shouldn’t be counting on my natural immunity because “it’s now proven to wane”. Absolute rubbish. I was completely recovered and feeling strong as an ox before being subjected to that experimental concoction. I am spitting mad.

There is then this from The Age: ‘Like watching them drown’: When loved ones go down the vaccine rabbit hole. It’s about people who are hesitant to be vaxxinated. These people are so crazy, it seems.

Australian Psychological Society chief Zena Burgess says psychologists are regularly dealing with clients whose families are in turmoil over the COVID vaccine.

“You need to gently question them about their views,” she says. “Asking things like, ‘where did that information come from?’, ‘do you think that’s a reliable source?’

“Regardless of their beliefs, people’s relationships can weather challenges, but they just might need professional help,” she says.

Jolanda Jetten, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Queensland, is researching the psychology of those susceptible to anti-vaccine and conspiracy messaging. She said more empathy is warranted from the wider community to better address people’s fears and make it easier for families to seek help.

“We need to be careful about ridiculing people,” she says. “For me, it’s very clear you only enhance that ‘us versus them’ mentality.”

“There are good reasons why our trust has declined in official advice. What we’ve seen is that when everything in the world seems like it’s really unravelling… when people feel that things are getting out of control- conspiracies are basically explanations for why something happens.”

“It’s also social media where the idea that if I feel alienated from mainstream society and I can go online and very quickly find a group who think like me – and that’s very reassuring.”

We’ll see what happens as our hospitals continue to fill  up.