Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Four Hundred Twenty Eight

I have been largely forgiving of our politicians during the struggle with the grippe reborn. They have been thrust into a situation they had not anticipated, and while one could blame them for that failure of imagination, it is abundantly clear that it is a failure shared across the world. We have known forever that the dread lord might rise again, have instituted plans and policies for just such an eventuality, and yet so many government’s, ours included, seemed to be utterly paralyzed at his appearance.

The various mistakes made in those early days, some from ignorance of the nature of the dread lord’s power, some from a bizarre inaction and almost an unwillingness to believe that this was happening, allowed him entrée into these parts and so many others. And here he has stayed, embedding himself deep in the fabric of things. All these early failures have meant that we have been unable to stamp out the dread lord’s forces in any meaningful way, which has meant our governments have found themselves vacillating between strict quarantine protocols and trying to allow some semblance of normal life.

Every government in the Dominions has made the same mistake at one point or another in the past year, thinking they had things under control, but in fact allowing the dread lord to march unopposed through the populace. Our leaders in these parts have the distinction of having twice allowed things to get so out of control that they nearly ran out of hospital beds and medical supplies. Once I suppose is explicable, but to allow the exact same thing to happen again a few months later, despite having seen the earlier consequences is unconscionable.

Yet it is not surprising, especially given the events of the past week. There is a significant minority, perhaps even a majority, of the governing party who claim there is no need for any quarantine protocols, who declare that the dread lord is of little concern. Many are representatives of rural ridings in these parts and they claim the dread lord is a scourge of cities only and that the rules are too onerous and unfair. It explains the great reluctance of the leadership of the party to enact stricter measures sooner when they might have saved more lives.

The tensions within the government caucus, which have been repeatedly publically stoked by recalcitrant representatives, exploded last week with one representative writing a letter demanding the resignation of the premier for his various failures. That such disputes should be taking place, while we all endure another round of restrictions and fear at the growing power of the dread lord, explains everything about the government’s response to the pandemic over these last months. For many, it is not their main focus. They have other priorities than defeating the dread lord, and we are living in the results of that. I can only hope that no one forgets by the time we come to vote again, for our leaders have amply demonstrated they are ill-suited to governing in any kind of emergency.