I shouldn't make a joke about Covid because it's devastated so many families around the world, but I used "capers" in the heading for this post to try and lighten things up a little so I can tell the story of how they're treating Covid in downtown Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam's Covid epicentre.
We live in the coastal resort town of Vung Tau, about 2 hours by road or hydrofoil from Saigon (no longer the city's official name but still widely used by Vietnamese, especially in the south). The highway Vung Tau-Saigon has been closed for the past 6 months to stop people bringing the virus into our town and infecting us all - but it was finally re-opened a couple of days ago, despite infection rates still being much higher than last year (like other places in the world influenced by 'Big Business' - in VN's case that's foreign investors wanting everything done their way "or we'll take our money elsewhere" - we're being told that after locking ourselves away for more than a year (literally - only allowed to open the front door to collect the day's meals that have been left outside!), we're now suddenly having to learn to "live with Covid"! Amazing...
But the best bit is in Saigon. If you leave home, best take plenty of money and spare clothes because you will be rapid antigen tested before entry to any gov't agency, business, shopping centre or other venue where large crowds gather, and anyone who shows positive is immediately carted off by ambulance to one of the "field hospitals" (tent cities) with siren blaring - and never seen again until they test negative (follow-up tests every 7 days!). So you might "pop down to the shops" but not be seen or heard from again for weeks - or ever!
I can't help wondering how such treatment would go down in western countries where the snowflakes complain about 'infringement of civil liberties', 'loss of freedom', etc even when just being told to wear a facemask!!!