Many ignorant people still do not believe that Covid-19 is real and dangerous to everyone in Bali.

Editor's Notes: Bali Covid-19 is not a Hoax.

Yesterday I noticed a Facebook post from an individual asking "if any of her Facebook friends know of anybody who has coronavirus or has died of it".

"know of anybody who has coronavirus or has died of it"

This question is usually asked by individuals who still think that COVID - 19 is a hoax or a worldwide government conspiracy.

Frankly this post was scary to me because it shows how ignorant the general populace still is about arguably the worst pandemic to ever hit mankind.

Past 12 Months of the Covid-19 Pandemic:

 I've taken a couple hours of my time to review the past year to convince those that this is not a hoax.

The Facts:

It was one year ago that I started reporting on COVID - 19 which was first called coronavirus, after a death was reported in Wuhan City in China.

As soon as I began to chart the virus cases it became obvious to me that this was going to be horrendous.

Yesterday, January 11th. marked the anniversary of China confirming it's first death from Covid-19, a 61-year-old man who was a regular at the now-notorious Wuhan wet market.

The virus quickly through most of China.
 

I published this chart on January 30 th. only 19 days after the first death 102 countries were infected worldwide.
We watched daily as news footage leaked from Wuhan of people being locked into their rooms and treated harshly if they went out onto the streets.

Within a short time Wuhan' hospitals filled with patients and rumours leaked of deceased being piled outside of the main corridors of the hospital.
After several months of rising cases the severe lockdowns began to work and cases began to peek. By March there was virtually little or no new cases being recorded.

Indonesia & Bali Breakouts:

Bali began to become concerned when news of its southern neighbour Australia began to record cases along with most countries throughout Asia.


Many people at the time still felt that this couldn't be real until they started to hear news of major politicians and media stars coming down with a virus, such as Tom Hanks.


At first it looked like the virus was primarily deadly to only the aged or those who have preconditions.

In February we received news that the virus had spread to Indonesia and then finally Bali probably in March.


Through it all because of a low amount of cases and extremely low death rates we in Bali felt almost immune. Especially when scientists reported that the virus did not like high humidity and high temperatures which are prominent in Bali.

Indonesia and Bali schools took quick action and closed down forcing students, teachers and exhausted parents to deal with online schooling for the first time in their lives.

The Bali government instituted certain regulations such as closing beaches, tourist areas and requiring people to social distance and use masks.

In the third quarter they relaxed certain requirements and opened beaches and tourist attractions.

Most  followed the government's regulations and masked up in public.

The Bali government issued strict regulations for hotels, restaurants and public buildings.
Many popular tourist areas in southern Bali turned into ghost towns.

The Bali government even cancelled their most sacred day the day of silence,  Nyepi to avoid ceremonies and crowds from spreading the virus more rapidly.

In the meantime the United States led by an absolute idiot spread theories of conspiracies  that COVID - 19 was not real.

I made a prediction that sooner or later that ignorant rednecks, who unfortunately own most of the automatic weapons in America would be storming government buildings protesting wearing mask and social distancing.

That prediction came true and last week we saw the same people storm the capital buildings of the United States.

All through this Bali tourism sank to the lowest level in modern history and many restaurants and businesses began to go bankrupt.

Even though Bali was one of the safest places in the world with one of the lowest death rates per population in the world it was almost impossible for tourists to come. Australia, our largest source of tourists were under a complete lockdown.
I I must admit there were times when myself and my family questioned how serious this virus was in Bali with less than 100 deaths by the Third quarter of the year.

That was until I received news that a person I had known for many years, a very successful Bali architect who was the former president of our tennis club died from COVID - 19 complications.

We were all shocked because we knew him as a very healthy person who ate well and exercised often. May he R.I.P.

Since he was younger than me this hit home with me that this is something we have to take serious.

The Bali government rightfully so cancelled any plans on opening up the Bali airport to international tourist arrivals in September and then again in December.

Unfortunately that didn't stop tens of thousands of domestic tourists arriving from places such as Jakarta and Surabaya during the year end holidays.


Many had driven over to Bali during the several weeks prior to Christmas.

There's no question in my mind that many of these people avoided having the proper tests before they arrived on Bali.

This was evidenced by information from a reliable source that when a domestic airplane crashed in Java last week and passengers were stuck at the Bali airport after testing them over 100 people may have been confirmed with having COVID - 19.

Many of these domestic tourists had spent the previous several weeks visiting restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions in Bali.

Unfortunately many of them probably left spores of the virus in places and on things that they touched.

As I result cases and deaths have increased exponentially recently.

Just this past week I confirmed two more deaths that were caused by COVID - 19. 

One was a relative of a doctor friend of mine and another was a friend of my wife's friends who works in a local bank.

So to answer the ladies question on Facebook yesterday "yes I do know several Bali residents  who has coronavirus and died from it".

So don't tell me this is a hoax wake up and pay attention to the facts.

Worldwide one year after the first death in Wuhan nearly two million deaths later, the pandemic is out of control across much of the world, leaving tens of millions ill, a pulverized global economy and recriminations flying between nations. 

Unfortunately although there has been good news about vaccines being created in record time recent holidays around the world have led to an exponential growth in the largest amount of cases and deaths per day worldwide.

  

One source of irritation for me recently is observing a large amount of young Indonesians and foreigners who are not adhering to the government's strict regulations. Especially they are not wearing a masks. 

Their reasoning is that if they are under a certain age they are immune from dying from this virus. Another fact that is not true.

In Bali and even in other Western countries such as my country of Canada they found recently that there is also a larger percentage of younger individuals that can be infected by COVID -19 and even die from it.

Don't be Selfish.

If you are young, especially under 45 there is little chance of you dying from the virus. 

But you have an equal chance as those older than you of catching the virus. Although it may not kill you often it may leave some lifetime long serious health problems for you.

If that's not reason enough for you to protect yourself with a mask I employ you to understand that that we are all in this together.

The longer you fail to follow social distancing health protocols and wear a mask the longer it will take get Bali back to normal where we can all have fun and enjoy ourselves.

And if that's not enough reason consider that if you don't wear a mask and you get the disease and pass it on to an older person who dies from it how would you feel? 

One thing I have learned in my seven decades on this earth is that Karma always catches up.

I am convinced that if your selfish actions causes an older person to die because they get the virus from you that you will have a lifetime of bad karma.

                                   

So everyone of all ages must follow the Bali governments protocol strictly.

Those that violate protocol should be treated harshly by the government. 

Fines should be increased. Those that constantly violate the law should be deported from Bali or given a very serious fine that hurts.

Yes there are vaccines that have been approved and are being distributed but if you watch the news it's going to be some time before we obtain them in Bali.

And I'm sure that many of these people that think that coronavirus is a hoax will also be the first ones to say I'm not going to take it because I don't trust the vaccines.

And that is your right but if the new President-elect of the United States Bidden and his V.P. Harris can take these vaccines along with the President of Indonesia Jokowi than we too have to seriously think about taking them.

The sooner we get this over with the better before bankruptcies depression and possibly even starvation occurs on Bali.

 If  you read my statements above supported by factual information and images and you are still not convinced you should go sign up to be one of Donald Trump's supporters, who believes that Donald Trump was cheated out of the election and that he was sent from God to save the world.