MenoAZinkulling: V

This month here at the Wild YAMster's bloggy, you are going to be regaled with words related to feelings and happenings of the last twelve months. Oh yes, you know of what I talk.  This is to be the ALPHABET OF AAARRGFIZZZ... We've all had to deal with it. This will be a reflection purely from my point of view. You don't necessarily have to agree with what I say; just appreciate where it's coming from. Normal service will resume on May Day. (By which time I may be yelling that down the ether phone loud and repetitively!)

☀♉☀

I would like you all to get your cuppa and sandwich or cake and settle down. This one is a beast... or not if you care to ignore all the links and cancel your curiosity. I swithered over this post (unlike most others, which were pretty much completed by mid-April). It's kinda outside the comfort zone of this bloggy - but then again, so has been the whole month. Doing a series on COVID - the 'ition' and the 'itis' of it - really demands that for the letter V, this post be written. One should also remember this is about you all learning about me in more depth and hearing my full Voice.

Besides, this is what amounts to my birthday party, so I hope you will be happy to Volunteer your time to read and explore what follows.

Volunteering was a big thing last year. Well, it's a big thing at any time, but it became highly Visible during the crisis. Within the health systems, within the food distribution systems, within the social support systems... a lot of folk found their inner hero, and that is a wonderful thing indeed.

From the personal coping point of view, it was hard to avoid watching an endless amount of Video presentation via various channels. The tubular thing is absorbing enough, but I also quite like the more adventurous nature of Vimeo. It has been possible to lose whole mornings to the rabbit warrens online. I suppose they could be thought of as Virtual Vacations. What exactly have I been Viewing? See if any of these grab ya;

Nureyev ... Bajirao Mastani ... McCullin ... Coriolanus ... Particle Fever ... Still I strive ...

Many dance films - lots and lots of docos... but I also signed up to 'live performance', which required purchasing tickets and supporting the dance or theatre companies. I recommend this. Front row seats every time. Appreciating the desire of all performers to get back into a true theatrical performance, I do hope they will all continue with their video offerings. Living remotely as I do, I have not attended so many plays and ballets as I have this past year!

The aforementioned primal scream

Vandalism... what? Not me. It is just that I was struck by the amount of vandalism that took place over the past while. I totally understand the purpose and need for the BLM movement... I do question, however, the Violence and Vehemence and downright Vitriol that has arisen around it. Though it is acknowledged that most of the big changes in society only ever really came around due to a revolution in one form or another, toppling of statues, I cannot help but feel, ought to come as a result of success in such revolution, not as the revolution itself. That is what then looks like wilful damage to property = vandalism: horse and cart and all that. I am also, to some degree, concerned at the signs of 'over correction' that is starting to show up. But that is inevitable tipping of the scales as things try to balance, I suppose.

Veracity. Clear and sustainable truth can be a little difficult to locate in this information-overload era. This is particularly important when it comes to science. We all love to think of ourselves as being good self-educators. However, unless we have a genuine background in research (... and even then, take it from me!), it is far too easy to be taken in by cleverly placed pseudo-intellectual arguments. Then there is the blatant bias that can be found. This Very thing is the topic of a recently published book, Science Fictions, for which the blurb reads:

While the scientific method will always be our best and only way of knowing about the world, in reality the current system of funding and publishing science not only fails to safeguard against scientists' inescapable biases and foibles, it actively encourages them. Many widely accepted and highly influential theories and claims - about 'priming' and 'growth mindset', sleep and nutrition, genes and the microbiome, as well as a host of drugs, allergies and therapies - turn out to be based on unreliable, exaggerated and even fraudulent papers. We can trace their influence in everything from austerity economics to the anti-vaccination movement, and occasionally count the cost of them in human lives.

You may be interested in this half-hour podcast with the author, Stuart Ritchie, where he talks a little more about that, but also about the Virtues of the famous Scottish drink, Irn-Bru...

Anyway, this seemed all very pertinent given how much we have to rely upon 'scientific evidence' in our current world health state. We all know that there has been a great deal of nonsense spouted about C-19... but even from the sources that can be trusted, the science at the moment is such shifting sand, it is just as likely to be adjusted and updated by next week. During the height of the unknown quantity that is novel SARS-cov-2, data was changing hourly. It will be quite some time before we have the fullest and clearest picture of it. Anything we do read may be the truth of the moment but may be disproven the next. Never mind all the stuff that has no basis of truth or is so skewed to favour one thing or another as to make the picture almost unviewable.

One of the big bugbears at the moment is being clear about the pros and cons of ....wait for it..... Vaccination. Yes, you knew that was coming, didn't you?! Ready for a video clip? It's fun, I promise... but it does require you to pay attention.

Now, armed with that knowledge...  What is very clear is that vaccines alone will not bring us out of the mess. (Very clever graphic there, do check it out.) We all must continue to follow the "Hands, Face, Space" ruling to minimise risks - even if we have been fully jabbed. It is still somewhat unclear what risk of carrying the virus is present after vacc and, with the best will in the world, there will be folk like myself who cannot (not will not - cannot) take the vaccines. Immunity levels are also still very unclear - that study linked will tell us as things are and have been - but the thing about viruses is that they mutate. That's their sole purpose in their lives. "That host not suitable, okay, let's try this..." If we are determined (and it seems we are) to keep up the human intervention in health management, there will now be an endless roundabout of re-vacc. (Since that article was written, just two weeks back, the Health Minister of the disUK announced this is definitely happening..."once everyone has received their 'first round' dose".)

The vaccines can only be of ultimate benefit when all people in the world can be jabbed. It has become abundantly clear (check that graphic) that there is an imbalance, and even in places with pretty decent vacc systems, the delivery has still been low, and they are now suffering as if it was all back at the beginning again. They relaxed very quickly back into mix and mingle once the vacc program was underway. We should be paying attention to that... 

Also, remember the post on efficacy. Other links of interest on this matter include the Global Vaccine Safety Summit presentation, held even as COVID was breaking, and this paper on natural versus vacc immunities. Overall, natural immunity is always to be encouraged. Still, where we have a crisis such as this, vaccinated immunity is necessary to reach that magic threshold where transmission of the disease is reduced to almost zero. (Almost, note.) This is the 'herd immunity that is so often touted. It does not require that every person on earth be jabbed... but the number at which it becomes notable - though still to be fully determined - is likely to be between 70 and 80 per cent of the population. We are a long way from that yet. (That's another neat daily update graphic.) There is no room at all for complacency and feeling smug at getting jabbed. We all must still keep our distance, cleanse hands and surfaces and wear masks when in company. The reality is that even if - when - COVID is controlled, it will linger long. Some natural immunity is likely to develop, as it did for influenza - but variants will continue to rise. (Do you want a 'dummies' version of all that? - here it is.)

On veracity - let me offer another word... agnotology. Oh yes, it's a beaut. 

AGNOTOLOGY; 

is the study of wilful acts to spread confusion and deceit, usually to sell a product or win favour. It comes from agnosis, the neoclassical Greek word for ignorance or 'not knowing', and ontology, the branch of metaphysics which deals with the nature of being.

Do you love that word? Here in the disUK, the political landscape is crowded with agnotologists. One, in particular, is starting to be ratted out by some of his cronies. I mentioned the diarist before; since then, another has left 'the ship', declaring "no one tells the truth round here!" and that bloke Cummingandgoing has turned worm ("et tu Brutus?") on his former mate.  He of the old boy's club, the cronyist - leader of the 'chumocracy'. Alekceaser Buttris d'Puffer Jingostar.

Vanaprastha. (वानप्रस्थ) is a composite word with the roots vana (वन) meaning "forest, distant land", and prastha (प्रस्थ) meaning "going to, abiding in, journey to". The composite word literally means "retiring to the forest". This is the ashrama (period of life) into which I entered two years back. The four ashramas are Brahmacharya (student, birth to 21), Grihastha (householder, 21 to 59), Vanaprastha (retired, 60 - 75) and Sannyasa (renunciate, 75 - death).

Thank you for reading this far - and, perhaps, enjoying a few click-throughs.  See you tomorrow for more. Don't forget (if you can't get enough of my alphabetting) to check out the posts at My Take, Aatmaavrajanam and Instagram - use the LinkTree on the sidebar. I'm off to blow a few candles. 

Hb Birthday Cake GIF from Hb GIFs