‘Tight rules over TB have left me with a strong sense of deja vu...’
MORE lockdown, more regulation, more restrictions, more stress, less freedom.
I could be writing about Covid-19, indeed I intended doing so, but then realised that I had seen this scenario before – herd breakdown or, more correctly, a farmer’s cows failing a routine tuberculosis test.
Firstly, a TB test is as routine as an American election; you don’t know what is going to be thrown at you.
Some are like rodeos with cows surpassing former Grand National hero Red Rum in jumping capabilities, some are long, creating tiredness and fatigue, both for man and beast.
They are all worrying, pass or fail, a bit like all your kids taking the same exam on the same day. Their future and your future depending on that result. Melodramatic? Yes, when your future depends on it, it is.
There are other parallels that I can draw and the worst example being the not knowing. Government figures indicate that 1.13 per cent of the population is infected –is it the first person you meet or the 99th?
Is it the first cow through the crush or, as it was once told to me, the last animal, after all the others had been declared clear, that tore your life apart? Yes, it does affect farmers that way.
Then there are the changing government policies, expressed on different time scales, which leaves you not quite sure what is happening.
Then there is the position on a vaccine, with at least a dozen on trial for Covid-19.
They will be ready by Christmas, Easter or are in use in China and
Russia. Hopefully, it will be a bit quicker than a new TB vaccine.
The original BCG is 100 years old and since 1980, the new one has been 10 years away.
It is now JUST two years away. Interestingly, I noticed that BCG has been used in the treatment of Covid.
Both diseases are nasty and the only way that they will be defeated is by people working together; each doing their bit of biosecurity, reducing contact, thinking of others and just being careful.