In the Mumbai edition of TOI today, there is an article on Dharavi achieving herd immunity. 

Population, 1 million, in three square kilometres. Almost everyone has been exposed to the virus. Very very very few have died. The article of course does not report that. My guess is ( based on extrapolation of another report on this a couple of months back) that it is less than five hundred  deaths. Which is as much as any other ailment. Finally, people have to die of something.

The way to develop antibodies to any virus is to get the virus, or to get the vaccine. 

The conclusion should be obvious. At least to me they appear obvious.

The virus is not deadly. There are  news articles highlighting  cases with horrible outcomes, which distort the picture in our minds. If you highlight all road accident cases which result in being wheelchair bound for life, you will stop driving, but what is the probability?

Indians are more immune. In my view, this is due to the fact that we eat fresh food most of the time, and the fact that we are exposed to all kinds of viruses all the time. The latter makes slum dwellers more immune. It is also but common sense that wearing masks and isolating oneself is going to reduce your exposure to all kinds of viruses, and thus your overall immunity.

By definition, any allopathic drugs are harmful, vaccines more so. So vaccines are justified only for extreme ailments like small pox or polio. This point can be debated, as to where to draw the line, but it is definitely not wise to take vaccines for Flu annually. That will end up reducing your overall immunity. But that is exactly where we are heading.

All viruses mutate. The body is used to handling this over millions of years of evolution. But this same argument is being used to say that one needs to take annual covid shots, and, why am I not surprised, bundled with your annual flu shots.

So we will do that, and we are getting more and more into takeaways and processed foods, and soon we will lose our immunity. Then we will be scared of every floating germ out there, and wrap ourselves in bubbles.

While the people in slums will thrive!

RUNNING FROM MORTAILITY

Elixir of immortality,

Where art thou? Thou art sorely missed,

The world is floundering, beyond hope,

Death is in the air, taken wing!

Is the answer to isolate,

Or jab a few poisons in,

Every new threat that percolates,

Is out there, demanding to come in!

When was the world any different?

Were viruses non existent?

Why this worldwide panic then,

Death comes! If not this then something else!

How we wish we could run away,

Seclude ourselves in little caves,

Seal the entrance from death's sway,

But  is not life meant for living?

I would rather see the sun and wind,

Be out there, mix with fellow men,

Let Death approach  when it will,

Let it find me, not when I am hid!

Magic potions do not exist,

But we like to believe they do,

Man in his new found arrogance,

Still cannot escape mortality's reach!

Virus Protocols

New mutation of virus!

The corona virus has mutated and is jumping from person to person through the air, and through all surfaces that people touch!

The vaccine is unfortunately obsolete! It was developed for the old strain!

New rules have been announced by several governments. 

It is no longer safe to touch anything.

It is not safe to breathe.

It is not safe to step out.

It is not safe to meet.

It is not safe to go anywhere.

It is not safe to come from anywhere.

All unhealthy people are at risk.

All healthy people are a risk.

Several companies are developing "isolation pods". These are wooden caskets six feet in length,  three feet in width, and two feet in depth. You need to get into one and go underground. You will be told when to come out. 

All "isolation pods " shall maintain social distancing and be buried six feet apart. 

There are three categories of isolation pods - silver, good  and platinum.

Silver customers will get only a music system. Gold customers will get cable tv connection. Platinum customers will have bigger caskets in which it will be possible to sit up.

Bookings are on, for the caskets! Rush!

Proof that the world is going mad

An article on today's ET says that Britain is thinking about sub-zero interest rates.

Try as I might, I am not able to wrap my head around how negative interest rates work or how they are desirable. 

It is a peculiar situation where we see either asset prices going up , like in the stock markets, or yields dropping, like in the rental real estate market, both of which are two sides of the same coin. 

Stock prices are more and more controlled by money flows, including cross border carry trades. Underlying strength and cash flows of the business seem to be a peripheral consideration.

Bond yields are dropping. Share prices are shooting up. The world is teetering between an unjustified  irrational fear of  covid and an equally unjustified irrational euphoria that vaccines will actually result in better health.

Every VC and PE fund, and the local paanwala , is thinking of an IPO,  to dump their shares on an unsuspecting public while the going is good.

Classical  economic theory holds that we all need to spend money , and consumption drives growth. That was anyway an unsustainable model with the flaw lying in the definition itself. Now we have a situation where a certain set of the population is earning the same as before, with jobs that are virtual and spending less in the real economy since they are shut up inside the prisons created by their own minds, while another section, the one that works in the real economy, is losing jobs in real life and having to learn how to deal with virtual life with even schooling going online.

Where will this end? Like during the buildup to the 2008 crash , no one wants to get off the merry go round so as not to miss out on all the fun, till it comes to a sudden crash. The current situation is similar, though there is nothing merry about this round!

Lovely times indeed ☹️

A few points to remember as 2020 draws to a close

1. It is considered acceptable to bare any part of your body except the mouth and nose

2. Humans think they are plants. They are breathing in their own exhaust inside the mask, presumably to recycle the air

3. The moral rules of Social distancing are the same as temperence.

Everyone preaches it, no one really follows it, but everyone pretends that they are following it

4. Those who have never touched alcohol all their lives are rubbing themselves with it all day

5. Those who bother least about masks and about social distancing , like the agitating sardarjis, seem to be healthier and more aggressive than ever

6. Panic can cause peculiar forms of blindness, where people fail to see the obvious.

7. Wallowing in mass misery gives a peculiar feeling of comfort

8. Extreme phobia triggered by calculated misinformation portents to be the New Normal

9. Extreme hope generated by dubious interventions are the path to Recovery

10. Mass hypnosis actually exists