Earlier this year we all went into lockdown… remember? Not like the current lockdown where most people seem to be carrying on regardless, I mean when the streets were eerily quiet, and our capital cities looked like a set from a post-apocalyptic movie.
 
During this time, I remember seeing news stories about the positive impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the environment as everyone moved indoors, cars stayed off the roads and heavy industry shut down. There were striking pictures of Nitric Oxide levels over China showing a massive reduction in the production of greenhouse gases. It seemed that something good may come out of the pandemic, almost as if the Earth was pressing the reset button and taking back control.

They look so cute and cuddly! I’m not talking about the Giant Microbes SARS CoV2 toys (gosh they do make great bugs, don’t they?!). No, I’m talking about mink! Well I like them…But personally, I think mink coats look better on mink!
 
Maybe Covid-19 is going to finally put an end to the production of fur coats… I can but hope. What am I talking about? This is a microbiology blog, not a rant against animal fur in fashion… or is it?
 
So last week, before all the vaccine shenanigans (Congrats to Oxford; at least their vaccine interim results are published in the Lancet not just the BBC!), I was going to write a blog about Covid-19 and mink. So, what was this all about?
 
Last week it was reported that there was a new strain of SARS CoV2 which had transferred from mink into humans, and that there was no protection even if you had had Covid-19. The way it was reported would have us all believing that another new pandemic was about to start….

“Today is a great day for science and humanity. The first set of results from our Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial provides the initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability to prevent COVID-19,” said Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chairman and CEO on 09/11/2020. “We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen. With today’s news, we are a significant step closer to providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global health crisis.”
 
Or perhaps in other words “the end of the pandemic is nigh!”

We’re all waiting for a vaccine against SARS Cov2, right? Once we have a vaccine, we can all get back to normal and 2020 will be a period of time that we look back on as a bad time in our lives. Well this is what I hear a lot of people saying… SPOILER ALERT! I think we need a reality check; the new normal is NOT going to look like the old normal.