Our pandemic

We are doing well, aren’t we?

Australia is marching on

Vaccinating its human population

The end of the rainbow within reach

When life returns to normal

Pre-pandemic, or just about

With a few pesky but trivial inconveniences

To life as we used to know it

But this is a pandemic

What does that mean

A virus present everywhere on earth

No respecter of national boundaries

Contagious, potentially virulent

Requiring humans

To fulfil its single mission

Survival

A new more harmful variant

Resistant to all the available vaccines

A single accidental mutation away

Which could happen at any time

The likelihood increased

By the number of people available to attack with full force

Australia will reach over 90 percent fully vaccinated by year’s end

A tremendous achievement

But how much comfort can we take from this

When many of Australia’s poorer neighbours are languishing

When all of Africa has only achieved 3 percent

Only China, it appears

Is making a meaningful effort to vaccinate the forgotten world

Despite its motives being impugned by the West

But how astonishing is it, really

That the wealthy, so shackled to greed and self-interest

Cannot rise above the lip service they habitually pay to the poor

To even protect themselves