The situation in Brasil looks dire, it has been on the news tonight. But I spotted one thing on the TV report that bothered me. There was an outdoor vaccination tent – and the people giving the vaccine were dressed in protective clothing. I watched as one of them pulled down their mask and wiped their nose.
Today I watched as groups of young people headed toward the beach – the weather was great so that is the thing to do.
I think this made an impact on me because of a TV programme I had seen. It was about a medical examiner. But like all good TV medical examiners they passionately rushed into situations without thought to get “the answer”. It was so extreme that it annoyed me – somebody that has a job involving carefully examining a dead body is pretty unlikely to take radical action without thinking it through. At least that was my thought.
But then there was the medical person in Brasil – and the young people here. In my work I presume people can behave in a controlled way for long stretches of time. But is that right? I wonder if this is something around attention span. There are various reports out, some say yes, others say no. But all of them seem to note that there are certainly tasks that we spend less time focussing on. And the changes seem to be dramatic with time.
Just another Victor Meldrew moment – the world is changing. Thank goodness robots are coming to do the menial tasks – maybe those automated checkouts are not as bad as they seemed.