Why all roads lead to home, even in VTL season

MUCH has been written on travel bubbles, green lanes, rapid antigen tests and vaccine passports. The English language has been greatly enriched by terms like PCR and PPE, both among the latest acronyms now resolutely lodged in our befuddled vocabulary. Thankfully, we do not as yet have TB and RAT in casual discourse but the pundits will find a solution.

These acronyms spoon-feed science to us in bite-sized morsels. They make travellers sound like they know what they're on about, hence the hasty adoption into living room conversation. PCR sounds so much better than polymerase chain reaction test. Few understand these alien terms and some circumvent the process entirely with false test and vaccination certificates (putting fellow travellers at risk). Hong Kong, for example, has baulked at recognising certifications from India.

Acronyms are here to stay along with Sars-Cov-2, Covid-19, N95 (not a scenic highway), RNA, mRNA, and worrying variants like Alpha (UK), Beta (South Africa), Gamma (Brazil), Delta (India) and Mu (Colombia) - all badges of shame in the egregious mishandling of this pandemic.