Fifth wave. Cartoon of 10/07/2021 in CTXT
The fifth wave is already teetering on the crest and, like the rest of the waves since this already tiresome pandemic began, the day it started is not known for certain because the virus never remembers to issue press releases to warn us.
So goes the curve.
Depending on how many times and from where you try to inform yourself beyond the latest official figures, you may find more or less worrying or alarmist messages.
Although vaccination is reducing the pressure on hospitals, infections have multiplied in half of the provinces and the incidence has shot up by 150 points in just two weeks. The situation is similar to that at the beginning of the third wave, with the significant difference that the pressure on hospitals has increased eight times less than on that occasion.
The incidence has doubled in just one week, marking one of its highest growth figures ever.
One of the indicators of the growth of the pandemic is the increase in positive PCR and antigen tests.
One thing that has not changed much is the denialist activity on the internet, which is mixed, almost merging with those who, without directly denying the existence of the virus, insist that all this is organised by someone (I suppose some believe by the government and others by the Illuminati) to keep us scared.
There are also those who do not know where to lay their eggs, but have to say something and, without daring to lean towards the more conspiratorial group, continue to cling to theories about the self-serving creation of fear. These never say what is the alleged motive for this alleged hidden agenda of creating fear, or for what purpose.
I understand the weariness and the desire for this to end for once and for all, hands up if you're not sick of it, but the more we want to get away from reality, the bigger the shit is going to get. Maybe we have a few more waves left and they will be easier and easier to control, although nobody knows that with enough guarantees to be able to say so.
Cartoon of 26 June 2021
When I made this cartoon about the end of the obligatory use of masks outdoors and the Delta variant, the mutation had already been spreading for days and I received several comments of this kind.
For a change, we still can't find the middle ground. Anything said about evolution and virus incidence inevitably ends up in arguments riddled with circular fallacies and other bullshit.
While some argue for a ban on big binge drinking and super-contagious summer events, others take it as if this is the only front and lock themselves into an unproductive debate on youth values with simplistic arguments to throw at them in bulk.
Trying to embrace balance amidst so much daily noise is not easy.
According to Clara Prats, researcher at the Computational Biology and Complex Systems (BIOCOM-SC) group at the UPC, in statements to La Vanguardia: "we are facing a new film".
"Such abrupt growth is only possible if there are widespread supercontagious events, along with a high percentage of the population attending these and a more contagious variant of the coronavirus," he says.
Reconstruction priorities. Cartoon of 25 June 2020.
It remains to be seen how the scenario will change as the number of vaccinated people increases and how it will protect us against possible variants, whether there will still be a high percentage of chances of having the virus, being asymptomatic and infecting others.
If we have been able to stand up to five waves, surely we can, at the very least, minimise the waves to come. As an exercise you can remember your life on the balcony, if you had one, and the daily torture of "Resistiré" blaring from a gravelly loudspeaker every afternoon, but, above all, those who stayed in the first wave.
