Happy Cronamas

The annual Christmas card mass mailout will have to start soon, only this year, given most people lick the envelope seal, any that are received will have to go into quarantine for a week before opening. 

Crimbo cards have the potential to be a most efficient means of sending the virus speeding around the country to all manner of remote destinations, especially as they're the only letters many send in the entire year. There's no certainty about how long C-19 can survive on card or paper, but it can be as long as 5 days to 10 days.

Here's a summary from a paper in 1965, well before C-19.

"The possible risks of infection associated with the practice of licking envelopes, stamps and labels were investigated. Although pathogenic bacteria and viruses were not isolated from sample envelopes obtained from various sources, the gums used in manufacture were found to exert a protective effect against death from desiccation on the bacteria and viruses which had been introduced into them. Staph. aureu, and Salm. paratyphi B remained viable for several months in dried films of two out of four gums tested. An echovirus could be recovered from similar films for up to 30 days, and an adenovirus for up to 10 days."

It'll be interesting to see if there's a spike in infections just before Christmas, and whether hitherto uninfected areas mysteriously occasion infections. Merely washing your hands after putting the cards on the mantlepiece will partially ameliorate any infection, but other family members are wont, when coming into the house later, to have a look at the cards to see who they're from and washing one's hands while in the safety of the home may not be in the forefront of people's minds.

Here's an interesting chart from an American analysis of the types of people who are most and least compliant with social distancing, wearing masks and generally doing what they're told to minimise the spread of the virus.

As can be seen, those who value caring and fairness are the most compliant, while those who value loyalty and authority are less so. Starkly, those who value sanctity, or religiosity, are least compliant. Now, in America, religiosity is somewhat different to that prevalent in the UK - the American Religious Right are very judgemental, authoritarian and Trumpist, whereas British religious people tend, on the whole, to be more the caring and fair variety - or wishy-washy Anglican, for want of a better word, rather than evangelical and certain.

The chart, for me at least, is a replica of the American political landscape and, to a certain extent, the British one too. Anti-lockdowners tend very much, but not exclusively, to be of the political right (and certainly among those most complaining about it in Parliament and threatening a revolt against Johnson), which may at first seems strange when you consider their unwavering respect for authority, but in this case it's in all likelihood heavily tempered, among the political class at least, by concerns for commercial interests and the hemorrhaging of government money, with the consequent tax implications for both their donors and voters. Those on the Left are less concerned about government borrowing, being either poorly paid in the first place (and thus partially immune from tax increases), or ideologically programmed to willing pay more tax anyway.

The irony is that the more people flout lockdown, the longer the pandemic will last and the greater the economic fallout will be. It's a stark reality that those countries that imposed an early and severe lockdown have been the ones who were able to resume normal life earlier.

As for anti-vaxxers and those refusing the vaccine - put them under house arrest.