Bonaire has gone to Phase 6 lockdown. Unfortunately, case numbers aren’t going down on the island – they are going up. A couple of days ago, there were over 60 positive cases. Yesterday there were almost 40. That’s out of 100 tests too. Yesterday was a 40% positive rate.

It’s as if someone had a big chickenpox party on the island. For the few people who even want a vaccine here, the rest of everyone thought, ‘We might as well get it over and done with. Whose house shall we have the party in?’ The authorities say all positive cases are resident-based, not tourists.

It does strike me as strange, the chasm which has opened up between who want and don’t want the vaccine. There are surprises for me for some in the no camp. The people who watch YouTube conspiracy theorists, ok maybe I was expecting those. Others come as a surprise. Of course, the Astra Zeneca jab concerns don’t help. But the naysayers I know were there before the concerns emerged.

We do know part of the reason for the hike of cases in Bonaire is the prevalence of the U.K. variant Covid-19 strain. It’s a more infectious form of the virus. Is it more deadly though? Who knows.

My jaw did shoot down reading about the Brazilian variant the other day. Oh my goodness. Attacking people left, right and centre it is. Medical staff report that age doesn’t seem to be a factor for this strain. And before, when one person in a household was infected with Covid, the rest of the household could still stay un-infected. People are seeing if one person gets the Brazilian variant, the whole house gets it now. It is scary reading.

Will the current vaccine protect us from this variant? Personally, I’m hoping that if it doesn’t protect completely, it might moderate effects to some degree. A bit like the flu jab – which I didn’t realise until after I had the flu and will never not have the flu jab again. Double negative – urghh! So sorry.

Taking the flu jab doesn’t mean you won’t get the flu (is this double negative day?) but the flu jab can still ameliorate the effects of the virus. Immunologically, this means you have some base level protection in the form of antigenic recognition which helps speed up a new defense. You might think so.

When I was talking to my mother, I mentioned all of this. How many people in Bonaire don’t seem to want the vaccine. How infections are on the rise in the meantime (apparently it really was traced to a party) and how the prevalent strain here is now the more infectious strain.

Lockdown has tightened – so there is now a curfew. Non-essential shops remain closed. And no more free-diving club for Lucia, until this highest phase of lockdown is eased.

I told my mum too how Bonaire is geographically close is Brazil, which currently seems to have the world’s scariest strain of Covid-19. It’s only a couple of countries and a short skip across the water away. Mixing with South America here is totally normal and necessary. What will happen to the non-vaccinated when the Brazilian variant turns up?

‘Natural selection?’ my mum proposed.