This master of isolation doesn’t have time for nonsense about the jab.
The Back Page will take heartwarming news wherever we can get it, but about the last place we expected to find it was in a remote Serbian mountain cave.
With the world news so full of disaster that covid is a bit of an afterthought, it was delightful to read about Panta Petrovic, who made the choice to practise radical social distancing 20 years before it was cool.
According to AFP, the former labourer gave away all his money, moved to a cave on Stara Planina accessible only via a difficult hike, and lives there with an assortment of animals including a 200kg boar he has raised from a piglet.
Last year on a trip into town from his hideout, he learned that a virus was on the loose.
As soon as he could get the vaccine, he did, and he told the news agency he’ll get a booster as soon as that’s available.
“It (the virus) does not pick. It will come here, to my cave, too”, the 70-year-old said, adding that he “doesn’t understand the fuss” made by sceptics.
“I want to get all three doses, including the extra one. I urge every citizen to get vaccinated, every single one of them.”
Which suggests that misinformation is worse than a lack of information when it comes to misguided ideas about immunisation.
How else do you explain this emanation from the epicentre of englightenment, Hollywood?
Chet Hanks had a few words to say about getting the Covid vaccine. ? Y’all agree with him?! pic.twitter.com/PN8Z2J7tyd
— No Jumper (@nojumper) August 10, 2021
Hanks Jr – whose far more sensible dad happens to have been the first celebrity covid case – is certainly not proving Petrovic wrong about humanity.
Before you escape to your mountain hermitage, share a tip with felicity@medicalrepublic.com.au.
