QUOTATION # 84.

[ON COVID-19 COMPLACENCY]

“In matters foreign and domestic, the biggest danger now is complacency.

Many of those urging us to open up all at once appear to believe that they are dealing with a known quantity with which they can conclude a deal.

But as the Chinese president Xi Jinping, memorably asserted: ‘This epidemic is a demon, and we cannot allow this demon to hide.’

Covid-19 is as protean as it is malevolent; each day seems to bring news of it taking on a new shape.”

“In Britain, children have been affected by a strange rash which may be related to the pandemic. In the US, children have come down with a Kawasaki-like syndrome which may also be associated with Covid-19.

The virus has been found lingering on cardboard and other hard surfaces for days.

It has been detected in the semen of men who have appeared to recover from it.

The death toll is likely to be in the millions; there is emerging evidence that many whose lives are spared suffer lasting pulmonary and neurological damage.”

“We simply do not know what it might do, what its final shape may be, or whether there will ever be a vaccine.

If you take all of this seriously – and accept that the disease has precisely benefited from a liberalised regime of global trade …… the idea that we can ever go back to business as usual seems fanciful.

……But this virus does not make deals.

It is changing the world.”

“…… There is no reason to think that those changes will be comfortable. And we have no idea what it may do next.

(We) need to keep their heads on straight.

We are not yet safe.

(Our) luck may not hold out.”

                                                                                     JASON WILSON.