We are all a bit tired of hearing about this darn Covid-19 virus, but two news items about the virus this week made me sit up. The first was Donald Trump’s rather staged return to the White House after being in hospital for the coronavirus.
Instead of using his experience as a cautionary tale for the people of the United States, he did the exact opposite. He stood on the balcony, still infectious, and took off his mask. What message does that send out? That it’s okay to spread your contaminated spit? Then he said: “Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it.” Well, Trump, maybe, but maybe not. So far 35 million people have had Covid-19, 24 million have recovered but more than one million have died. Of these, 211,000 were in the US. What did their families feel about Trump’s glib comments? And why did he say “we have the best medicines”? The world knows there is no cure for Covid-19 and no vaccine to prevent it. A national leader should err on the side of caution. There are gullible people out there. Remember the people who drank bleach after Trump said it killed the virus? Remember the 30-year-old man from Texas who went to a “Covid party”? This is a gathering held by someone who has the virus, attended by others who want to test if the virus is real or a hoax. True as Bob! Well, the man got the virus and died. News reports said that shortly before he died he said: “I think I made a mistake. I thought it was a hoax but it’s not.” Shame man. You almost want to laugh, but I feel sorry for the guy. Imagine being that dof. Did he get the hoax idea from Trump’s cavalier attitude to the disease? The second piece of interesting news was the genetic link between people who get Covid-19 really severely and Neanderthals. Scientists claim that a strand of DNA that triples the risk of a person developing Covid-19 really severely, came from Neanderthals – stone-age cavemen and women who lived between 430,000 and 40,000 years ago. Then they became extinct. But before that they interbred with modern humans and that is how some of us carry Neanderthal genes. The scientists say it is not clear how these genes worsen Covid-19, but estimate that about 100,000 of the global death toll can be attributed to this ancient gene. They say 16% of Europeans and 50% of south Asians carry the Neanderthal gene, so those of us who have European or Asian ancestry may also. Always had a soft spot for Neanderthals. It dates back to an archaeology class when I heard about the excavation of a Neanderthal burial somewhere in Europe. An analysis of the soil around the skeleton revealed masses of pollen grains. The Neanderthals had laid flowers on the body before burying it. I thought that was lovely. They may not have been fully evolved, but they had feelings the same as you or I.
