Our new neighbour recently poked his head over the fence and introduced himself. Nice chap, but deluded into believing that COVID is fake. I wasn't expecting much from a digital currency trader.

A week later came the letterbox drop by anti-vaxxers, and I'm wondering if there really are that many people willing to risk the worst possible consequences of catching this virus?

Now that the COVID genie has escaped the Australian bottle, it seems highly unlikely that we’ll ever put it back, that is, that we’ll ever get daily case numbers back to single digits.

The Delta variant is unlike anything in living memory in terms of its transmissibility. It's outwitting the smartest strategies we can muster, and it’s a complete pushover for the pandemic deniers who go about their lives as if nothing is wrong.

COVID-19 is not as scary as ebola, but it’s global prevalence and exponential growth ensures that almost everyone will eventually catch it, especially given the inevitability of the conservative majority pushing to lift all restrictions, augmented by the selfish behaviour of the 'mask-holes' among us.

So if you’re one of those deniers, one question rises above all others...

Do you feel lucky, punk?

In 2020 before Delta, we first observed doctors in Italy despairing over choosing who would live and who would likely die. This sad reality soon spread across the globe as case numbers exceeded worst case scenarios, with hospitals  bursting with desperately ill patients.  This was not a figment of their imaginations, nor were the news stories created on a Hollywood sound stage.

In our new world where we'll aspire to live the way we used to, amassing in large numbers at events and parties will be risky. Rational informed scientific consensus is that those with COVID who haven’t been vaccinated, will be at much higher risk of needing acute medical care. Bear in mind too that filling hospital beds with COVID patients pushes those with other critical illness out. That could be your mother.

So again ask yourself, are you feeling lucky?  When (not if) you catch COVID, will you survive?

I’ve given myself the best chance. You should too. Get fully vaccinated. Get off Facebook. Get real.