Hoping against hope

As I write this, Johnson is battling his own Ministers, backbenchers and newpaper editors to stop the opening of the country from going too fast.

But even then, he is relying almost only on vaccinations to stop the spread, nothing is mentioned of track and trace now, despite £22 billion spent last year and another £15 billion to be spaffed this.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, the P1 variant, some 160% more infectios that regular COVID, is spreading through the country and into Peru and British Columbia. It targets the very old and the young and strong most, being three times more fatal.

It emerged this week that tourists not on the Government "red list" are being allowed into the country, even as we, UK citizens are barely out of house arrest. That the total of people being allowed in without any kind of quarantine is on average 8,000 a day, and some will be carrying the new and other variants.

P1 seems to make reinfections more likely, but it seems to be unclear on how it affects those who have been vaccinated.

Johnson stated last night that the next stage of unlocking can continue as planned next Monday, and the hope is that normal is coming.

But I fear for the summer, and into autumn and a third wave.