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Thursday 24th 38F, another grey day in prospect. Very misty as well as overcast. It will be almost nine, again. Before it is light enough for a safe walk along the verge between life and certain death.
The traffic was light at 9.00 but far heavier by half past. Though still patchy, the mist slowly cleared from 200 yards to 400 yards visibility.
Some health workers are questioning the wisdom of prioritising the vaccination of the elderly sick in old people's homes. They may well be vulnerable but are they actually the highest priority right now?
With a very limited stock of vaccines and extreme time constraints, why offer protection to these existing "patients?"
There is a desperate shortage of health workers. It is getting worse all the time. More are going sick or quarantining. The virus case load increases every single day. With hospitals transferring patients away from hot spots to avoid closing their doors.
Does it make sense to hand out umbrellas to those most easily protected? By isolation in a closed home with a secure roof and a protective door? Rather than protecting those who must carry the umbrellas against the deluge for society as a whole?
Having no doctors and no nurses left is the worst possible scenario. Sick, old people are the daily norm. Year round, year after year after year. Protect the brave who can still do most to help the majority in this unprecedented emergency.
By protecting the front line workers you reduce the burden on society. You reduce the burden on the hospitals. And, you reduce the burden on the old people's homes. Simply because the health workers are no longer contagious. Or at such grave risk of infection and being lost to this most vital workforce.
The lifeboat is sinking. There are far too many, very unhealthy people onboard. Do you allow the elderly smoker to live at the majority's expense? To smoke another day and [perhaps] another?
What about the lifelong alcoholic? Must they be spared in this first wave? Or the drug addict? All of these people actively chose their unhealthy lifestyles. It did not just happen to them. As if by some freak accident. Every day is a personal choice to continue killing themselves. Albeit slowly and to the imminent danger to their families, colleagues, road users and to society as a whole.
Now what about the exhausted captain? Or his highly experienced mate and the tireless sailors. All of whom have done everything in their power to stay afloat for this long. The coast is in sight as the darkness is finally lifting. Even if the grave dangers of sinking are not yet over. Should we push them overboard to feed the fish? That all these others, far more "needy" might live?
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