I am not afraid to catch corona myself. I live alone, i do not see that many people. Only when i am outside in the garden. Outside the contamination is minimal.

I try to keep my head straight. It is difficult to decide who to trust and who not. Not sure i make the right decisions. I hope i do. I read some online newspapers. It does take a lot of time.

I do think this pandemic is actually not that severe. It is contagious, yes. But the percentage of people dying from it is rather low. To me, it is comparable to influenza. The main difference is that COVID (Coronavirus Disease) is a new disease and humans are not immune to it.

On the other hand, corona until now (january 19 2021) has taken around 2,040,000 people’s lives. From the Dutch figures i have learned 91% from all deaths in the Netherlands are over 70. The older you are, the higher chance you have more vulnerability factors.

I am worried about this pandemic though. The various mutations have different characteristics. So far the main difference is in infectivity.

Like i said at the top of this post, i am not afraid to catch corona. If i do, i hope it will be a mild version. I i die, it is simply the way it can go. Of course i hope i will stay healthy.

[…] The anthropogenic destruction of biodiversity is paving the way to the pandemic era and could result in as many as 850,000 viruses being transmitted from animals – in particular birds and mammals – to humans. The “exponential rise” in consumption and trade of commodities such as meat, palm oil, and metals, largely facilitated by developed nations, and a growing human population, are the primary drivers of this destruction.

In a press conference on 28 December 2020 Dr Mike Ryan, head of the WHO Emergencies Program and other officials said the current COVID-19 pandemic is “not necessarily the big one” and “the next pandemic may be more severe.” They called for preparation.

All quotes from this article are from Wikipedia: Pandemic.

Last Friday the Dutch cabinet fell.

I have thought about this. I have watched Dutch talk shows: Op1, WNL, Buitenhof.

I noticed the clear condemnation of the Dutch politicians: verschrikkelijk, terrible was the general used word. This never should have happened. Rather easy to say after a devastating report called Ongekend Onrecht (Unknown Injustice). I did watch all the talk shows and the press conference of the cabinet in which they announced their resignation. It was a month since the report came out, and the pressure had not died down.

I do not follow Dutch politics each and every day. I do not know all the names of Dutch governors. But the past few days i watched as much as i could, read a couple of articles on reliable sources. But not nearly enough.

And it is not only Dutch politics in which things like this are happening. The whole Brexit thing, the Trump government with the storming of the Capitol on January 5 this year, only a week and a half ago.

People are fooled easily. Including me. There is hardly any truth around, only falsehoods, things skimmed over, things not told, things not seen.

Complicated.

Het geheugen van de Tweede Kamer is kort, zodat het verband tussen de problemen van vandaag en de oplossingen van gisteren zelden wordt opgemerkt.

The memory of the House of Representatives is short, therefore the connection between problems of today and solutions of yesterday is seldom noticed.

Source: de Correspondent: Tienduizenden gedupeerden, maar geen daders: zo ontstond de tragedie achter de toeslagenaffaire