Suzanne Harrington: The great irony of the year award goes to the Covid vaccine
Goodbye then 2021. You’ve been weird, but at least you weren’t 2020. Role reversal of the year goes to James Bond, who was killed off, and the Taliban, who made a sequel — shouldn’t that have been the other way around? And despite the continuing global erosion of democracy, as Brazil, China, Russia, India, Hungary, Turkey, etc, continue to be run by Bond villains, at least Twitter got rid of Trump.
The Bidens are German Shepherd lovers, a detail we can cling to for comfort after the dogless Trump was hounded out, leaving a January 6 trail of Capitol-invading Q Anons in his wake. We watched them on the telly — a reality show to make Squid Game look like Blankety Blank.
Great irony of the year goes to the covid vaccine. Not since Galileo thought the sun might not revolve around us, or Darwin suggested we were made of monkey, has a scientific breakthrough caused so much dissent, and so many people with an internet connection to elect themselves virologists, epidemiologists, biologists, and opinionologists.
Like JK Rowling faced with the idea that trans people are not predatory, significant swathes of public reaction to the Covid vaccine remain unenthused. Which has resulted in the supreme irony of millions of people in rich countries being offered a free vaccine and refusing it — taking to the streets to refuse it — while in poorer countries, millions are desperate for it, and can’t get their hands on it.
A lesser — but still remarkable — irony of 2021 is Elon Musk being made Person of the Year by Time magazine. For what — being the world’s richest tax evader?
Still, 2021 proved a better year for some areas of equality, as Kamala Harris became vice-president of the US, and Black Lives Matter was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. George Floyd’s murderer was jailed, although Trump was not, despite being impeached again. The Kardashians were kancelled, and Daft Punk broke up. So did Adele, who released another album about it.
Meanwhile, as world leaders flew in private jets to discuss the climate emergency at Cop26 and the rest of us tried to figure out what Cop26 stood for, around the world droughts, floods, hurricanes and wildfires upped their game.
Vegan went mainstream.
Crowds became a thing again as people returned to theatres, sporting events, cinemas, and gigs. That feeling of walking into a football stadium with tens of thousands singing their heads off was a personal highlight of the year; not even caring if your team won, but just being all together again, roaring. Like no feeling on earth.
So goodbye, 2021 — you were definitely better than your predecessor. As we cautiously poke open the door of 2022 to peek, fingers over eyes, at what lies ahead, let us deal with the continuing encroachment of the Greek alphabet on our lives with pragmatism, not fear. And go me for writing a whole column without once mentioning the word Omicron.
Happy New Year.
