“The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human”
Aldous Huxley
Word to the wise: when an Austrian locks down millions of people, and the Germans and Italians join in, it’s not likely to end well.
But, European memories being apparently short when it comes to everything except holding grudges in the Balkans, Europe is rushing to repeat its own dismal history when it comes to despots with a bent for dividing up and locking up its own citizens.
Politicians across Europe are looking to follow Austria’s lead and impose lockdown on millions of unvaccinated residents, as coronavirus cases continue to climb.
Belgium Prime Minister Alexander de Croo said that “the alarm signals are all red”, while in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel and 16 state premiers have warned that free movement would only be allowed for the ‘vaccinated or the recovered’ once certain hospitalisation rates are eclipsed. Germany, which has 68 per cent vaccination levels, has experienced a 40 per cent increase in cases in the past week with the eastern states most affected.
This is the same Chancellor, remember, who just a few years ago granted absolutely free movement to millions of non-European men flooding across the Mediterranean and Bosphorus.
History buffs may feel a certain frisson on reading the following:
As well as Germany, other countries like Italy and Greece were also looking at imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated as a way to try and boost vaccination numbers and curb the spike of cases that have emerged as cold winter approaches and a potentially more infectious, but less dangerous variant AY. 4.2 has emerged.
Well, that’s all the old gang back together, plus a couple of new faces. The French, as ever, are pretending to hold out for now, but clearly planning to surrender at the first opportunity.
Speaking of new faces, there’s a new alphabetical conglomeration for the media and politicians to try and scare the pants off us all with.
It is unclear if the new wave has been caused by the latest mutant under investigation, AY. 4.2, which has caused nearly 12 per cent of all infections in England in mid to late October.
Golly-gosh, this Abracadabra strain must be some fearsome stuff, eh?
Scientists said people infected with AY. 4.2 are more likely to be asymptomatic compared to those infected with other variants of coronavirus. Scientists also believe this particular strain, while producing much milder or no symptoms, is more infectious than the Delta strain.
Wait, it’s milder than earlier strains of a disease that already had a death rate well within the range of severe flu strains? So mild that it’s even more likely than the previous strains to be “asymptomatic” — a fancy-shmancy word meaning, “not sick”? In other words, 80% or more people “infected” with the new strain wouldn’t even know it if they didn’t take a PCR test?
Delta plus, or AY. 4, the parent strain of AY. 4.2, was attributed to causing 63 per cent of cases in the UK in October.
The Australian
Remind me again of what we’re supposed to be afraid of?
From here, it looks like it’s governments we ought to be afraid of, not the big, bad, ‘Rona. The latter, at least, is getting weaker by the day.
If only we could say the same about authoritarian governments.
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