Great Western Coffee Shop

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says South African COVID-19 variant could reduce vaccine efficacy by half, and set efforts back to square one - https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-matt-hancock-says-south-african-variant-could-reduce-vaccine-efficacy-by-half-12195907

At the moment, the hope is that all the hardship and restrictions will be over in a few months time thanks to vaccine rollout.

But what if that's not how it turns out - What if instead these kinds of variants stay one step ahead of us and our attempts to control and subdue them?

Would we be heading for a seasonal future where say, everything was largely open with light restrictions between May-October, but largely closed with heavier restrictions between November-April? What would the effect of that be on society in general, and public transport and the railways in particular?

Or would there be other ways forward?

I thought last Monday (18th Jan / 3rd January of the year) was supposed to be the most depressing ...  let's hope that (a) it turns out to be a precautionary check and not 'back to square on' and (b) solutions are found which override the problems and work round to a future with some quality ... bus, rail, life!

Sorry to depress you, grahame!  ;D

I guess i'm just one of life's planners of every eventuality, good or bad, as that tends to work for me. For example, by planning for the worst-case scenario of mass Beeching-style closures in the mid-2000s, I fervently believe (and have evidence to back it up) that we ended up preventing a fair few from happening.

Heard of the 'flu & it's vaccine?

That's how this one will eventually pan out too. At least annual vaccines needed (depending on how long the antibodies are discovered to last - current research points to around 5 months, but could be longer), across possibly more of the population than the current 'flu one is provided for, for free.

This one needs two jabs each time (at least 3 weeks apart), the flu one (at least a week apart from the Covid two), just a single shot. So 3 jabs across at least a month, each year, minimum.

Most responsible pet owners have cats and dogs vaccinated anually against common illneses, yet many seen to regard anual vacinations for humans as being an unreasonable imposition.

If you have had the first Pfizer-BioNTech jab it could be interesting as to what happens about the second jab as the EU is threatening to ban exports outside the EU from the Belgian plant https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55805903 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55805903)