Dear Editor,

Viruses multiply very rapidly; this is a given. Each virus makes a large number of copies, and each of those copies makes copies of themselves, and so on.

Now, consider that each virus is like a typist with poor eyesight. The first typist, starting with a copy of the national anthem, makes, say, 10 copies and gives them to 10 typists with similarly poor eyesight, who each make 10 copies.

Beginning to get an idea where I’m going with this?

If, for example, these typists with poor eyesight only make one typographical error in 1,000,000 copies, and thousands of millions of copies are made, very shortly what they produce will have no resemblance to the national anthem.

So, in promoting the rapid copying of the novel coronavirus by not taking precautions to prevent its spread we might eventually make a copy saying, “This virus, made in Jamaica, is resistant to all current vaccines.”

So it goes. Party on, boss, party on.

Howard Chin

hmc14@cwjamaica.com