Unnecessities

BioNTech and Pfizer have apparently won the vaccine race if it is true, as it seems, that their joint panacea proved more than 90 percent effective at preventing people from getting COVID-19. To say the least, the vaccine’s distribution appears rather complicated by its requirement to be stored at minus 80 degrees Celsius, but hopefully mankind will succeed without having to condemn the planet to a new, post-apocalyptic Ice Age. It’s also quite obvious that its distribution will be gradual and partial, as (at least in principle) first priority should be given to the most frail and vulnerable members of society, which may mean or not that in the meantime many “unnecessary” people could be sacrificed for the health of those more involved (and influential). Maybe I’m biased, but I just can’t forget that, in a moment when cinemas, dance studios, exhibitions, libraries, museums, and theatres were nearly deserted (due to an hysterical, book burning media policy), the rulers ordered to close them all and at once, instead allowing soccer games — as well as other gladiatorial shows — to continue. But because personal matters are, by definition, too personal to be dealt with in the big picture of such an emergency crisis, well, let’s make a virtue of necessity (and let’s each of us bury our “unnecessities”).