Wise Men & The Crown of COVID-19

I called a medic friend who works on the front lines in lockdown London and said, “I need a Christmas column but what else is there but the horror of the coronavirus?”

The doctor listened. I carried on. When I stop in the middle of an ordinary task, and there is a reminder, a masked child, an empty space at a table, a closed shop front, another zoom funeral, I feel the horror at a biblical scale experienced a hundred years ago during the 1918 Spanish Flu leaving over 50 million dead, infecting 500 million.

Since January 30, 2020, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 an emergency, 1.7 million people are dead, and over 77.3 million people contracted the virus.

“It’s finally landed even in Antarctica, to people in a remote research station surrounded by icebergs and the ocean.

And us former colonies can no longer look to our previously revered Western world for succour.

In the US, over 300,000 people are dead, 17 million infected.

In the UK, where over 69,000 people are dead, over 2 million infected, there is the rapid spread of a new strain, leading to a travel ban from 40 countries. In South Africa, another mutation.” Now, he spoke, I listened.

“Ordinarily, at this time of year, the coldest of hearts melt with hope that mankind will be saved by the gifts of the wise men: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But we are in no ‘ordinary’ times. If someone were to say that they saw three wise men walk down Charlotte street, and CNN reports a Virgin birth in Barrackpore or Beetham we cannot be faulted for believing the unfathomable, from sheer desperation. That biblical pandemic of ignorance is now too real. The crown of thorns is replaced with the coronvirus’s spikes.

“Now to the three wise men who travelled from the far corners of the globe to bring forth gifts in COVID-19. Travel far and wide? Now, gifts from those who travel will be rejected. We will say, I am sorry, I shall wish you well from afar and give you all the love and warmth without coming to you or letting you travel to me—A journey to carry those gifts may take us to another biblical tale, 2,000 years old, that of the kiss of Judas.

“No amount of glistening gold or pungent fragrance saved Jesus from the pandemic of selfishness and ignorance that resulted in his suffering on the cross. That ignorance will be the death of us.

“We know now that COVID-19 is mutated, with at least 23 mutations in the UK alone. We saw in June 2020 how the COVID- 19 mutation infected the Mink population in Denmark, yet no one raised a voice to suggest that mutations are coming and with consequences.

“In September 2020, scientists at the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK) first identified the new strain. Yet it took four months–December 2020 England–to create a new Lockdown level, Tier 4 because these mutations are spreading faster than the original COVID virus out of Wuhan. It is 71 times more transmittable, with a more intense viral load in the patients.
When were the wise men of the West going to let us know that this was a possibility? “Alan McNally, professor in Microbial Evolutionary Genomics at the University of Birmingham, told the BBC: ‘Let’s not be hysterical.

It’s something to keep an eye on.’ He was wrong. “Thankfully T&T shut our borders early with positive benefits (125 deaths and 411 active cases). What should we ask of the wise men? This: In the absence of physical gifts give us the supreme gift of knowledge and truth that our leaders can use to save our lives. Don’t spare any detail, or ‘mamaguy’ us. And this: With the early lockdown and so few cases, and resultant low herd immunity will the new more potent variant result in a double impact–one from a spike of the original variant and the other from rabid mutations? “We must tell the wise men we do not need redundant physical gifts this year.

We require only one gift–that of scientific knowledge, wrapped in shimmery insight on the highest point of the tree which we must interpret to suit ourselves. We must know, apart from the cost and availability of vaccines, will they work, given the new mutations? Then we must decide whether to hold steadfast to keep the doors to our manger shut or to invite herd immunity.’ This was the medics conclusion: “We need our own wise men, chosen by us, for us, who will look at our interest and tell us what is best for us. On this unique Christmas, hope lies in challenging the narrative that the wise men of the West know best. We need to say, don’t give us the gifts you want to give us. We will tell you what gifts we need and how we will use those gifts when we are summoned to the Cross emblazoned with the corona crown.”

The Trini medic in England whose heart is clearly at home is among the wise. As we approach 2021 during a COVID-19 sandstorm our tiny isles will only be able to tell the mirages built with lies from the clear light of day if we seek scientific knowledge and truth from those who love us, even if from afar.

Wish you, dear readers, a light-filled 2021.