2022

The past year has been a huge challenge for so many of us.  Having to share Christmas dinner with my Covid positive son sat eating his Christmas dinner on the driveway whilst the rest of us were in the warmth of the dining room typified what many of us have experienced this year, Covid grew, it mutated and it evolved into a highly efficient virus able to infect everyone it came in contact with, both vaccinated and unvaccinated. Those that were unvaccinated do appear to be at huge risk with 90% of intensive care beds being taken up by this population emphasising the need for vaccination. As it stand the virus is in exponential growth phase in the UK with 190,000 new cases today, Boris Johnson failed again to provide clear leadership and tonight, New Years Eve, will be a deadly mixing pot of COVID with alcohol, complacency and stupidity. The results will be evident within the next 2 weeks and the excess deaths within the next 6 weeks. True, this is a relatively mild virus compared with delta but its also so much more infectious. To place the hospitality industry ahead of peoples lives is criminal, but we need to get ready for this “tsunami” of Covid and then be prepared to move on.  Once the NHS re-groups from all it’s illness and lack of resource we can re-start the health service and start to move towards normality. Covid will always be with us but we can adapt. By the time we get to March we should be through the big wave currently hitting us and we will have herd immunity. The possibility of a mutation is always there but as the world becomes immune this lower the chance of a new mutation affecting us. In short the outlook is positive and Covid will be beaten.

The economy is clearly going to struggle, the cost of living will rise significantly, particularly when it comes to gas and electricity bills and this will have a huge impact on most families, particularly the poor. We must protect the vulnerable, this is a moral duty that we have and this will help stabilise our society.

A big lesson for me in 2021 was to remove myself from people who bring no value to my life. I think this is something we should all do. There is a theory that the universe has an inherent “law of attraction”, good people tend to attract good people and the bad people in our world will coalesce with other bad people. I plan to give my energy to be with good people and those people that are bad will not have a place in my world and any such behaviour will be dealt with firmly and without compromise. I implore you all to follow my lead, do not waste your life in negativity, we have one life, let’s live it.

The 2021 headlines (for me) were:

1. Covid and how we continued to stretch the NHS
2. The incredible nonsense coming out of the mouths of almost every member of this government. Corruption is clearly endemic.
3. The success of the vaccination programme
4. Pier Morgan quits Good Morning Britain
5.The death of Prince Philip (even though he had some questionable traits)
6. Boris Johnson gets his flat decorated (not sure who paid for this)
7. Dominic Cummings former chief adviser to Johnson, provides evidence to a joint session of the Commons Health, Science and Technology committees. He makes a series of allegations regarding the Government’s handling of the pandemic.
8.John Bercow former Tory MP and speaker of the house of commons, defects to Labour, calling his former party “reactionary, populist, nationalistic and sometimes even xenophobic”.
9. Matt Hancock gets caught with his lips around the wrong lady and loses his job (but is quickly set up for a job with the WHO)
10. A lawsuit is filed in New York against Prince Andrew accusing him of sexually abusingVirginia Giuffre – probably haven’t heard the end of this!
11. Barbados becomes a republic
12. Sir Lewis Hamilton is robbed of his 8th world title because it wasn’t good TV
13 Allegra Stratton resigns after making light of the numerous number of government parties when we should have all been in restrictions.
14 Captain Sir Tom Moore dies 🙁

So the first month or so of 2022 will be tough but I am certain that we will emerge from this in a better position. Ultimately we will need to be positive and get our priorities right. I wish all of my friends and followers a very happy new year! If you are daft enough to go out tonight please do a lateral flow test first and only go out if it’s negative, try and stay outside (it’s quite warm) and no unnecessary cuddling or kissing. I’m sure you will all ignore my advice once you have had a glass of wine so have fun whatever you do! Me? I’ll be bringing in the new year with a nice glass of red with the girl that I love.

Happy new year!

Dr Tim x