It has been once in a lifetime year that we have witnessed. Each and every human being on Planet Earth had been through a traumatic experience which only the Marvel movie plots could have conceived. An invisible enemy had attacked the world with its deadly hands.
It’s really unbelievable that we had survived a 1 in a 100 years event that no one could have dreamt about but only read in science fiction books. The fear was so complete that country by country shut down their borders and death rates spiral out of control. The mix of Covidiots refusing to mask up or to recognize a pandemic when they see one resulted in more lemmings being sent off the cliff. Stupidity has no cure if the denial of reality is absolute.
We sat in amazement as lockdowns become a way of life, wondering when will we be able to be let outside again. Flight travel went to almost zero overnight and companies started to collapse industry by industry. It was as if the apocalypse Thanos had the world by the balls and we were at the mercy of Mother Nature. Days and months went by as the nightmare unfolded before us. The new norm seemed so alien to everyone but we all adapted quickly. Zoom calls and working from home (WFH) became the status quo. How fast we all forgot about the old norm.
Wave after wave of the virus hit us. No one knew how this story would end. Just when we thought things improved, our human nature got the better of us and a new wave was created. Each big holiday break was a primer for a new breakout a few weeks later. We just could not break the stranglehold on humankind.
Then the news of rapid vaccine development gave us hope. The vaccination rollouts started to happen by Dec and 4 months later, the light at the end of the tunnel looks nearer. It is the only solution we have and getting to herd immunity is the way to break the pandemic cycle.
As I began tracking this virus via my blog, the many ups and downs were written to help me reflect on them again in the future. The fact that I even managed to go overseas to the UK for a month, arrived back home safely for a 14 days hotel quarantine was an amazing feat as I look back.
I would like to count all my blessings again, for how this had turned out for me so far. When I read about what many have gone through during this time, I cannot help but feel so lucky that I had managed to escape most of the hardships of this virus.
Being a citizen of S’pore is one of the most fortunate things that could have happened to me. The way the government systematically handle the situation and attacked each problem as they met them head-on is to be greatly admired. Just this week, Bloomberg identified S’pore as the 2nd most Covid resilience countries in the world!
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/?cmpid=BBD032521_CORONAVIRUS&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=210325&utm_campaign=coronavirus&sref=TCJIUe33
I am happy that all my family members are still safe and healthy. My elders had started their vaccine shots and it was without incidents. I have just booked my appointments for the 2 shots today for the month of Apr as the vaccination program was just opened to my age group (45-59). Getting herd immunity by Jun is possible now as the country had already acquired sufficient supplies for the whole population.
As I reflect on the last 1 year, I am surprised that it had passed by so fast but yet when we were in the midst of it, time stood still and every day crawled along and seemed endless. We had to keep to a new routine to remain sane. Mental health is a topic that has been given much more attention now than a year ago.
Are vaccines the way out of the rabbit hole? How long can it lasts and do we need booster shots? Can we mix them for a higher protection effect? How long will it take for the rest of the world to achieve herd immunity? These are still some of the unanswered questions but at least they are much less scary than the ones were had last year, where no one had the answers to anything except to see the climbing cases and mortality rates.
I count my blessings again, praying for the less fortunate and wishing them well. May we weather 2021 much better than 2020. Looking towards normalcy soon, hopefully into the 2nd half of this year!
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