#the first round of the elections are in a week and I am PANICKING | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

backstorywithdanalewis · 4 years

Text

The New Variant - The race against Covid-19 on Back Story with Dana Lewis podcast. Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/7078915

Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (00:00) And as soon as he said that, you know, I felt, actually felt physically sick because that meant that this, you know, even with it a lockdown, like if we'd continued the November lockdown, we would almost certainly have continued to have, uh, increasing numbers of cases, increasing number of hospitalizations and increasing numbers of deaths. And Dana Lewis - Host : (00:22) By the way, we are seeing those now. Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (00:24) Yeah, absolutely. Yes, yes. Yeah. And so it was extraordinarily worrying. Dana Lewis - Host : (00:36) Hi everyone. And welcome to another edition of backstory. I'm Dana Lewis. I started this podcast in the spring under lockdown, and it's been a fantastic outlet to interview and hear some amazing people. This is our last podcast of 2020 we're under lockdown in London. So I guess it ends as it started tonight is new year's and hopefully 2021 is a better year for everyone as we speak. My kids will not be going back to school in London this week, because school openings are delayed. Hospitals are overwhelmed here and in America, and in other parts of Europe, the COVID 19 virus has been relentless. And now it is adapting and becoming more dangerous because then you variant makes it spread faster. We're talking about 70% faster. According to the experts this week, Oxford AstraZeneca announced they have been approved as a vaccine. The third big vaccine after Pfizer's and Medina. Dana Lewis - Host : (01:35) This one is easier to transport, cheaper to buy. But as this new variant of COVID-19 spreading in the UK, in Europe and Canada in the U S now resistant to vaccines, well, they say probably not, but we can tell you behind the scenes tests are being carried out at government labs. And we will know more in a couple of weeks, but we are in a race say experts to get the pandemic under control with vaccines before this virus mutates again. And it will on this backstory, we speak to a professor of medicine, Dr. Paul Hunter here in the UK. He's a virologist, but first we go to the U S and an epidemiologist who has been publicly critical of the Trump administration's handling of the pandemic. There's been a lot of people that have been critical, which by the way, and by any estimation was downplayed politically by Trump to win an election. He lost the election and the virus just keeps on coming. Dana Lewis - Host : (02:42) All right, joining me now from Washington is Dr. Eric Feigal-Ding, who is an epidemiologist, a health economist, uh, he's well known. He does a lot of television by the way. And, uh, Eric, you know, you appeared in this ad, um, really against, uh, president Trump with a lot of other healthcare, uh, people, doctors who were really concerned about the pace, uh, of the spread of COVID-19 in the United States as most people are. Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding: (03:12) Why did you do that,? Well, I felt like, um, public policy around public health has really failed in terms of leadership in leading the country. And so much of what we know about, um, masks. So much of what we know about lockdowns so much. What we know about testing content tracing being early to stop the pandemic. So many public health recommendations were ignored. And literally we've never been in a situation where, um, an election came down to life and death for thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people as, as quickly, I'm unfolding, um, the last few months and into the coming months. So I felt really compelled as a public health scientist to really act and advocate. Dana Lewis - Host : (04:06) I'm glad you acted with good conscience. And, but why do you think that president Trump ignored kind of that side of the discussion to a large degree in downplayed the virus constantly saying we're rounding a corner. The vaccines are coming, you know, from the moment this started breaking out in the United States, he, he was trying to close the door and say, we have it under control and it's going away. Why? Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding: (04:32) Right. Well, it's the key thing for his reelection. He thought according to a lot of strategists is that the economy must be booming. As long as the economy is booming, that was his path to reelection. And obviously the coronavirus pandemic has thrown a huge monkey wrench that given all the economic damage that he has done. And, and he thought early on that, the longer, he just tried to downplay it, ignore it. Just trying to tell people it's a hoax that you would somehow dampen people's anxiety. And again, not cause people to get worried and therefore change your behaviors and hurt the economy. Can you tell him that he could win in that way for his reelection, but the virus, the virus is, will do its virus thing. It does not care about political beliefs whatsoever. It will transmit at every single opportunity that you get it to transmit, whether it's airborne, whether it's not wearing masks, whether it's not this isn't seen, whether they're not taking any public health precautions, not testing conduct, Tracy, this is why the virus really agnostics the politics and that kind of dimension a trunk, just his mindset just could not deal with this pandemic. Dana Lewis - Host : (05:51) All right. It's important timeframe in how long this virus is led to run loose in some regard, is it not? Because now that enters us into this new conversation about a new variant, which I want to ask you about, but the longer this virus is around the, the more it's going to change and adapt and, and become vaccine resilient. Is it not Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding: (06:18) Well rag vaccine resiliency, vaccine escape is a little bit more tricky. Uh, we don't think that this will escape the vaccine, but you are right that the longer this virus circulates in nature, that he has a host or reservoir of whether it's humans or animals to replicate pass on. And in these hosts on mutate, the longer that keeps happening, the more and more of these mutations, these chanced unlucky mutations that we will see. And so this is why we have to really eradicate zero COVID, shouldn't be the goal because with zero COVID, we can eradicate it for good and return to complete normal. But with this semi, you know, uh, lockdown semi, uh, keep the embers, as long as it's almost gone, you know, that's half Willy nilly approach or not end this virus and will allow it to become endemic for longterm and mutates more and more forms. And we just cannot afford that Dana Lewis - Host : (07:26) Here in the United Kingdom, but also where you are in the United States, that does appear to be the pro the approach though, as long as the hospitals can deal with the inflow of patients, then you kind of release some of the restrictions, let businesses open again and movie theaters and Cylons, and then the moment it looks like they're about to be overwhelmed. Again, they start locking down and that's what we're, we're experiencing here in London, uh, because of this new development with the virus, they are locking down and starting to get pretty panicked, but they're never going for what you talk about this kind of zero approach to the virus. Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding: (08:06) Yeah. My best analogy is, look, if you are owner with Jurassic park and you know, you've almost eliminated all the velociraptors, um, but welcome to the park. Kids come to the park. No one's gonna come to the park and same with, if it was a zoo, the full economic demand and marginal propensity to consume, and all of these things, economics, you will not return until you have completely eliminated that spiral. This virus is just that pernicious, uh, just that easy way to, um, basically transmit that it will really stall out our economic development in so many different ways and hurt our children in so many ways. So a little bit of the vaccine strategy, which I cannot, you know, emphasize is so important, but isn't coming fast enough for given the pace of inoculations zero COVID should be the goal and really, truly stamp it out. Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding: (09:07) So that's never a menace to us. Again, you really have to aim for that. And with the hospital criteria, it's so dumb. Look, if that was the criteria for everything, you know what? You don't need to wear helmets, a hospital beds they're not full, you don't need, uh, you know, seatbelt laws or hospital beds are not full. That's not how public health works. You reduce risk every single way you can. And this is the friends of the same reason. Um, I think secondhand smoke is it is a good analogy. Second hand smoke, extra hurts and causes cancer and heart disease and deaths and other people, right? That's why it's banded restaurants and bars and this, and this hurting other people. This, we have to take this prevention model and the community model truly we need to, in order to in guarantee economic development, we need to stop this virus for good. And we need to think of the collective good and not just think of, Oh, are the hospital beds full? We're not really. We really have to focus on zero COVID as the goal. Dana Lewis - Host : (10:11) How concerned are you about this new variant that they've traced back to at least starting here in the United Kingdom, especially in the South East and around London, where I am to September, they think, um, and it has quote unquote by the government taken off. How concerned are you? Is this just another variant in some 4,000 variants? Or would you say, no, this is a lot more significant. Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding: (10:38) Yeah, we've had a lot of variants, but this is significant given that the number of mutations is accumulated is huge. It's like a huge jump step up from the average rate of mutation. And it's in the spike protein and in the binding domains, which means it can likely modify how this virus functions and this increased transmissibility anywhere between 50 and 70% is worrisome. That said it doesn't change how we, our public guidelines are. We know how to stop this virus. It's basically wear masks, take distance precautions, but that's not enough to take airborne precautions because this is the airborne virus and hence ventilate and do all these, uh, contesting contracts racing. All of these things don't change. These strategies still work. The problem is this virus just move so much faster. If these public health containment measures are not in place and no one wants to lock down, I don't want to lock down. No one wants to lock down. That's a last resort, but unless we can do all these proper public health things, lockdown is the only way to go. And obviously that hurts all a lot of people. So it doesn't change in a percent, uh, what we should be doing, that it just changes the urgency. And I think the increased risk of transmission in children, that speculation also increases the urgency that if we want our kids to go back to school in the near future, we really have to get this under control. Dana Lewis - Host : (12:14) All right. That's what I want to ask you about, because up until now, it's been gauged here in another parts of the United States that it's more important to keep schools open than it is to keep kids away from COVID because they don't generally get a lot of big reactions to it or, or they're they're asymptomatic. Uh, but no doubt it is spreading amongst kids. And this new variant appears to be based on initial reports. And I understand studies are still going on and you're you're, you don't have firsthand studies, uh, in front of you right now, but what do you think, how do you interpret that data that you're starting to see about its ability to spread with kids? And what does that mean to, to school openings, which are just around the corner, Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding: (13:01) Right? And I think this is one of the factors that really worries me because this transmissibility people have downplayed it in children for the longest time. Now, granted children don't die at a high rate, but they do get sick and do get hospitalized. And some have, of course, unfortunately do die, but this is only more important for our kids, because if it is true, if it is preliminary, data is true that this elevates the transmission risk among kids to the level of Advil, which is what they're speculating. This means that children are efficient vectors as adults. And that means schools will become much more dangerous of a place. Now, obviously of all the things to open, the last things to close down should be schools. And so I would rather close down bars and restaurants before it closed schools, but this really changed the ball game around schools. Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding: (14:01) And this emphasizes that stopping the virus, ultimately stopping the virus through vaccinations or through these other public health container measures, Texas tech testing conduct, raising mass ventilation, airport precautions. It just takes on a level of urgency. I cannot emphasize enough and people are just also ignoring the fact that it's airborne this wash. Your hands is important in the early days, but I think wash your hands. It's still important, but not nearly as important as ventilate and not nearly as important as you know, um, using, um, advanced Merv 13 filters germicidal UV for, for, for office buildings and, um, newer schools, all these things take on a new level of urgency, unfortunately. And if so, if this variant holds out true, which is now detected in like dozens of countries worldwide, it is very worrisome for our kids going back to school Dana Lewis - Host : (15:05) More widespread than we realize because, Oh, Kay's very, very good at analyzing like a hundred times better at, at doing genome sequencing and, and studying the development of the, of the virus. Do you think that there's just a lot of other countries that just haven't recognized how widespread this is already in their populations? Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding: (15:27) Yeah, absolutely. And remember the old adage, no testing, no cases, no pandemic. Well in this, uh, situation, it's no genomic sequencing new, no mutations, no new variants. It's, it's this. And it's a very backwards, you know, see, you know, you will hear no evil, but is there a truly evil, um, we don't know. And the us is ranked number 43 in the world in terms of percentage of total cases sequenced the virus. Okay. The sequence. So we're really behind the ball game here and we think it could already be behind. Remember in the spring, we had discovered that we were two months behind identification of the early Washington state cases because we didn't, we lacking lacking testing and you know, January, February. So this is the worry that it's already here. It's already circulating. Now it's not more deadly or, um, you know, virulent than the previous drains. Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding: (16:28) But again, what's what makes this fire so unique is that it doesn't kill everyone really quickly. Because if you do like a Bola with 50% mortality, this fires wouldn't take over the world. It spreads pernicious Lilly, heart kills a lot of people, but also harmlessly passes through many. And this bad things are many because of is contagious. This is what gives it the pernicious property to take on the world as a pandemic. So we have to stop it and we have to take a whole, no prisoner, zero a zero COVID because those countries that have New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia, China, and Vietnam, they've enjoyed hundreds of days of no community transmissions or for the most part and all and no deaths. And they're having concerts sports games do it. Life is basically returned to normal and they have not paid any further price beyond the initial lockdown period, but we are constantly paying it again and again, with multi-trillion dollar relief bills that we can't afford on the longterm, we have to do it and we have to stop it. Now, Dana Lewis - Host : (17:46) Editorial in the garden by an Anthony. Who's a professor of global health and sustainable development at university college here in London, um, says don't blame the new development with the virus for where we are. He says the prime minister's repeated dithering delays and seeming inability to make unpopular decisions have led Britain to one of the worst death rates in the world. We can only hope that we're not in that position by Easter. He says, there's a lot of parallels between what's happened in Britain and what has happened under president Trump. Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding: (18:20) Yeah, absolutely. And I agree the most of the global cases, hospitalizations and deaths are not due to the new, very new, very is still a small minority of the total viruses that circulating. And you know, it really is a show of how big the difference good leadership makes. Um, in New Zealand, just Cinda art and Shirley leadership allowed to huge move fast and take the precautionary principle. Taiwan did the same thing as well. Um, Taiwan's vice-president is actually a Johns Hopkins trained epidemiologist. They move fast. They, you know, they do blink when it came to, uh, how bad this could be. They knew that they had to get under control and that takes leadership decisiveness. If you want to be sure, 100% sure before you act, you will be too late as a who immersions director. Mike Ryan said, this is why good leadership in these times of crisis makes all the difference. This is not like a hurricane that's already blown through. This is an active storm. That's still raging and the faster you can stop it, the faster you can enjoy life again. Dana Lewis - Host : (19:41) Last question to you, what is the risk? And I don't want to over dramatize it, but it seems to me in everything that I've read, that you've already talked about, the new variant changing, somewhat the development of the spike protein, which is what the vaccines are designed to cling on to an attack. If we did there to use somebody else's words again, if this goes on with us, just kind of letting the steam out of the lockdowns and then locking down a bit more and then letting it run again, run hot. Isn't there a danger that these vaccines that we need so badly at a certain point will get outpaced by COVID-19, which is constantly adapting to its environment. Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding: (20:33) Yeah, it's this, this coronavirus, it's not as fast mutating as say the flu, but it does mutate over time. And the longer we let it linger, especially for many, many years there be vaccine escape. To some degree, it won't be, you know, right now say maternal adviser, a 95% efficacy. It won't be that it drops to zero, but it could drop a significant percentages. The more mutations it has now, we're doing lab studies right now to show how much, um, the, our antibodies, the resistance that we develop from this vaccine will, uh, attack this new variant. And some people say probably won't affect much at most, a few percentage points dropped, but the longer we let it roam free, the more it will pick up these resistance. And I use the word resistance because it's slightly not exactly the slightly akin to antibiotic resistance, right? Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding: (21:34) The, you use more ways to attack it. Especially certain drugs like monoclonal antibodies, which people speculate it could be use of the monoclonal antibodies in the immunocompromised person, but the more you attack the virus, the more it will try and ways to beach and the more time and more bodies in which you can live for a while to mutate the more, the greater, the risk that this could happen. And that is what we ultimately don't want. Now, granted, we can modify the MRD vaccines pretty quickly. We had this vaccine, we are administering now back in February, we can synthesize pretty fast, but the trials would take so long and take so much effort and time, and we will lose a lot of cases. And we'll go through more of these openings. Lockdowns at the pandemic is not control. We have to stop it now. And the fact scene thing, you know, it's a more of a multi-year thing. If it becomes a significant vaccine escape, but that should not be a consideration right now consideration right now is we have to stop it for a whole collective of public health, children's educational and economic reasons. And long-term, if we do not stop it in 2021, 2022, we let it keep roaming. Then the vaccine escape will really catch up with us in a few years. And that's what we ultimately definitely want to avoid as well. Dana Lewis - Host : (23:02) All right, Dr. Eric, figgle ding. Very good to talk to you and, uh, an epidemiologist and health economist, and I will confess, I've been trying to get him for more than a week. He's he's a busy guy and in high demand. So we really appreciate your time. Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding: (23:17) Thank you. Best wishes. Thank you, sir. Dana Lewis - Host : (23:27) All right, let's go to Norwich Um, England in East Anglia, the North school of medicine, uh, is at the university of East Anglia and Dr. Paul Hunter, uh, is a professor in medicine. Hi, Paul. Hello. Good afternoon. You are a virologist. Yeah, my medical specialty. Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (23:46) I graduated in medicine, then I specialized in medical, microbiology and virology, but a lot of my, uh, career has been, um, are also involved in, uh, public health aspects of infectious disease. Dana Lewis - Host : (23:59) You probably never thought we would be in this situation. Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (24:04) Um, well actually one of our medical students, Amanda, my old medical students, uh, sent me an email a couple of months back saying he can remember a lecture that I gave about 10, 15 years ago now where I was predicting pretty much that we would have something like this at some time in there in, uh, um, uh, uh, working career. So, uh, it's one thing to predict the one was expecting. Dana Lewis - Host : (24:30) I think that predicted it's quite another one to face it. And I mean, actually, did you really believe that when you kind of looked statistically and said, yeah, well, I mean, we're probably do every century or something. Yeah, Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (24:40) No, absolutely. Because, um, you know, we, for most of my professional career, we've been experiencing one or two what's called emerging infectious disease threats a year. And it was only really a matter of time before we had a big one like this. I mean, we've had in the last few years, we've had, um, Ebola in West Africa, Zika virus in South America, uh, avian, influenza, swine flu, all sorts of other threats, SARS and MERS. And so they, they come about once one or two a year on average. And it was only a matter of time before we had one as big as this. And as the world health organization, um, said a couple of days ago, you know, this might not actually be the big one where they're full of good news. Yeah, absolutely. Dana Lewis - Host : (25:36) So it may not actually be the big one because they're expecting something that's much stronger than this virus. Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (25:43) Well, be the case. I mean, we're heading for about 2 million deaths totally so far. Um, with this pandemic and, um, Spanish flu, there was, I think I'm writing saying there was something like 50 million deaths worldwide and, um, it it's, uh, possibly only a matter of time before we gain, we have something that can do offs this, but hopefully Dana Lewis - Host : (26:08) Like we, we seem so utterly ill prepared for all of it. Look, as we speak, let's start off on a positive app. Oxford AstraZeneca has announced now that their vaccine has been approved. So we have yet another big vaccine out of the, I guess, out of three big ones now, um, would you take it, do you think this is great news or Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (26:33) I think it is, I think the, um, they're the three main vaccines at the moment and, uh, for the West at least, but there are others, there's the Russian Sputnik vaccine and China's got it. Seven vaccine, um, which is, um, again is slightly different to, uh, the, so the, uh, Emma RNA vaccines for Pfizer Medina and the add no virus vector vaccine, Dana Lewis - Host : (26:58) This one different than the Pfizer and the Madonna Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (27:01) It's it's, it's delivered within a preexisting virus, which is for the Oxford one, it's a chimpanzee virus and that gets into the cells and then the DNA is released. And then the, um, uh, then that cell manufacturers that spike protein, which is what you're trying to gender the, um, immunity to, um, the Pfizer and Medina vaccine. So it's called MRN a vaccine. So essentially what you're doing is injecting messenger RNA into, um, uh, uh, little packages that then get taken up and then get replicated into, into the protein. And so ultimately the end, the end result is, is, is the same, but they, uh, they, there are many different, um, issues in how you handle these different vaccines. Certainly. Dana Lewis - Host : (27:57) I don't know many mainstream people that don't have concerns about the safety of the vaccines, even traditional people that generally say, yeah, you know, vaccines are fine. They give them to their kids. These have been rolled out so quickly in such a compressed period of time. I mean, there, there are still a lot of concerns with some pretty sober people. I mean, these are not anti-vaxxers, but just generally people who are worried about, you know, do you take it or do you wait awhile? Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (28:22) Yeah. I mean, I, I, I've got no hesitation, you know, I'm just desperately looking to the opportunity to have my shots, which the last time I looked might not be till April may. Um, although with the Oxford vaccine coming out, I think that, I mean, this issue about the speed is, is that these have got to effectively got to market. Um, when you realize what the reasons for the delays are normally, then it becomes, um, less frightening. The, the issue with most vaccines is that when you're developing a new vaccine, so any disease, the first thing is you never sure it's going to work. So what happens is that you persuade somebody to fund your initial research, to show that you can develop a vaccine and that may be, and then go on to show that it works possibly an animal experiments. And, um, and then once you've got those, you write those up and you then go through another round of persuading, somebody to fund the phase one studies, uh, which if they're successful, you fund the second phase two studies. Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (29:34) And, and the other thing is that for most, uh, infectious diseases that you're trying to develop, uh, vaccines to you don't have actually that much disease around. So the, even when you do get to phase three trials, it takes a long time to accumulate enough cases in your study for you to be able to judge the efficacy of the vaccine what's happened here is that effectively all these manufacturers, all these vaccine producers were funded up front for the whole thing. They, um, so they didn't, once they'd completed the phase one studies, they could, they didn't then have to go begging for money to do the next bit. And also because of, uh, that they were able to, um, overlap the different studies. So that as soon as you've got preliminary data, showing that phase, once it's safe, you can then, uh, pretty much quickly go onto the phase two studies and so on. So, so all the steps have been gone through, Dana Lewis - Host : (30:45) Right, in saying that with the Oxford AstraZeneca and maybe with the others too, that because we're in the middle of a pandemic and especially in the United Kingdom where you have a national healthcare system. Yes, they were, they were very quick in getting it out to people, having the right people, take it for their studies and being able to get those results back. Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (31:06) Yeah. And, and importantly, having those right people actually get sick. Um, and you, because, you know, you only know that the vaccine has worked once people start getting sick in your study. And then what happens is the once you've got enough people who have actually developed the disease, you break the code and see whether or not the people who've developed the disease have been in, have had the vaccine or a placebo. And, um, and that's why that phase three studies, which typically can take several years to complete, have been, um, able to got big gut through quite quickly, Dana Lewis - Host : (31:49) As we speak, there are a lot of people sick and there are numbers of people sick in America, sick in Europe, United Kingdom, um, very close to leading the death toll in Europe, again, um, this new variant and pull it's really what I wanted to talk to you about. Are you alarmed by the new variant? Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (32:10) Oh, desperately. So, um, I can remember one of, one of the days that I will remember most about the epidemic was, uh, in part because it shocked me and I wasn't expecting it was when the prime minister gave his, uh, his, um, presentation about a week a Saturday. What was, it was about a week before Christmas about this, Dana Lewis - Host : (32:43) You know, it's not very long ago. It seems in this news cycle, it seems like it was a long time ago. It was just a week before Christmas. And that was 72 hours after he had come out and said it would be inhuman, just create a lockdown through Christmas. Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (32:58) Absolutely. And, um, and th what he said was that the second sentence was effectively that as far as they can tell, the new variant has an R value of more than 0.4 over the pre-existing variants. Now we've, um, we we're hoping to publish this soon, but we've, we've been looking at how effective the Nash, the November lockdown was. And generally it was pretty effective. It must be said, you know, in terms of suppressing the virus, um, and most regions were able to get down on average to about an R value of 0.7, um, in for that, for their epidemics. Dana Lewis - Host : (33:50) You know, Paul, there's a lot of people that don't understand the R value, especially in America, because it's talked about in news conferences here all the time, but the R value essentially as if it's an R value of one, that means you infect one other person. If it's one and a half, you're inspecting, you're bending silent half, you're passing it on. So it's gotta be below one. Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (34:08) It's got to be below one now. So the simple maths was, if our November lockdown was able to get the existing variants down to an R value of 0.7, and this new variant was 0.4, that takes above one. And so what, what essentially that said was that the, that the November lockdown was not sufficient to reverse the increase in this new variant, which is very scary. And that means that, you know, we, um, and as soon as he said that, you know, I felt, actually felt physically sick because that meant that this, you know, even with it, uh, locked down, like if we'd continued the November lockdown, we would almost certainly have continued to have, uh, increasing numbers of cases, increasing number of hospitalizations and increasing numbers of deaths. Dana Lewis - Host : (35:08) And by the way, we are seeing those now. Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (35:10) Yeah, absolutely. Yes, yes. Yeah. And so it was extraordinarily worrying. It means cause we tend to use the term non-pharmaceutical interventions and although for, for these, and they'll they lock downs is, um, it's a sort of a catch-all phrase. The reality is that lockdown is a very, you know, means very different things. You know, it can be just a Pope's restaurants are closed, shops are closed or it could be, everybody has to stay at home. It could mean, you know, and there's a difference between lockdowns with schools open and down, Dana Lewis - Host : (35:48) We're in London and we're in a, we're in a tier four lockdown, which means beauty salons, gyms, all of the main shopping centers, which were open just before Christmas had to be closed, but you can still go to work. You can still, uh, travel on public transit. They say, if you need to, but most people who want money will say that they need to indeed. Um, so it's it's, and you're not allowed to socialize with other households that shut all of that Christmas three household mixing idea that just shut it all down. Do you think that is working now? Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (36:27) Yeah. And that, that was depressing because actually, although a lot of my colleagues were arguing against having celebrations over Christmas. I was not one of them because I felt that we could, I felt the three, uh, family Christmas, uh, rule could have allowed us to manage Christmas safely, uh, and less of a risk than actually going about our normal daily life, uh, early on in the month. But this new variant of course, just, yeah, I mean, it just, uh, throw out, Dana Lewis - Host : (37:04) Do you alarm that beyond the R the replication number? Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (37:10) If we can't stop this disease, if whatever we do shorter vaccination increased. Well, there's a number of things. The first is that forgetting about vaccination at the moment, what this means is that case numbers will increase, um, rapidly, no matter, uh, possibly no matter how strict our lockdowns are. And of course you can't lock downs, can't be ever totally strict. I mean, if we were able to enforce a rule that said, okay, for the next month, nobody at all is allowed to leave their house. Then, uh, the virus would pretty much have disappeared and may well have actually totally disappeared. The problem is that there'd be a lot of people dead from starvation and the water supplies would have stopped working and, and our electricity wouldn't be on and all these other things, which we need to keep us alive. So it's, it's always has to be a balance between how restrictive you, you want to be. And actually, how do you keep people, keep society going, um, at the lockdown and seems to me Dana Lewis - Host : (38:26) What balance it seems to me watching this government in Britain, and then also watching the, the Trump. I don't even want to characterize it, but I mean, the Trump tragic tragic comedy, um, that there's, there was this idea of herd immunity in the beginning. And then they started to kind of get into this other system where, you know, they would, they would lift the lid, um, just until hospitals started to see those increase numbers. And they were worried about the hospitals getting overwhelmed, and then they would put it down. Whereas in Asia, the philosophy was very much shut it down, eliminate it, and then reopened. And, and in Western Europe and in America, um, Canada was a bit better where I'm from generally though it was, you know, let it, let it simmer. Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (39:18) Yeah. Yeah. And I think that was a mistake. And I think, I think the, um, we certainly didn't in this country do well enough to control this epidemic. And I think the, the fact that we, that the new variant arose in the UK, there is nothing special about where new variants can arise. But the only thing that drives whether or not you're going to get a new variant in one place or another is how much more disease you've got in one place or another, you know, the likelihood of getting a new variant appearing in a place is solely related to the number of infections. So if we'd managed to bring our infections lower during the summer and September, if we'd got an effective test track and trace that actually worked properly, if we, um, uh, being a little bit more cautious about opening up some of the hospitality venues and encouraging people to go on, um, uh, to go to restaurants during August on particular days, because that's when you've got the half price meal. And that's when it was really busy, um, that, um, you know, we might not have actually had enough cases around to have actually kick-started the English barrier, but then of course the, you know, there's the South African variants. So, you know, it wouldn't necessarily Dana Lewis - Host : (40:48) Very, very quickly. Just two more questions. One is, you said the English variant look, I was looking at the center for strategic risks in America. Um, and there, there are a lot of former defense officials and people who have died who have dealt with the risk of biological warfare. And I have a lot of respect for them, but they talked about the genome sequencing sequencing that takes place in the United Kingdom. Um, and that there really isn't anything comparable to in other places and that the us should have it, but that the number that they use in the United States 0.3% of cases have been sequenced in the United Kingdom. It's about five, 10% roughly, right? Yes. The us is ranked 43 in the world, by the way, which I think is shocking. So look that may tell us, yeah, the UK is better at sequencing. Doesn't it also tell us that this variant, while it's really been identified in the United Kingdom and people are sealing their borders to the UK, it is probably much more widespread than we realize. Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (41:55) Yeah, it is now. But I think, I think the balance of evidence is it probably started initially in the Southeast of England, maybe Kent, but, you know, we can't say that for certain, you know, one of the things, as I'm sure you know about Kent is that it's sort of quite close to the channel tunnel. And so, you know, a lot of them, Dana Lewis - Host : (42:18) All the truck drivers passing through and stuff, Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (42:21) Well, you can't exclude that, but it did, you know, um, but, uh, it, it certainly is spreading more widely. Um, it, it's now in the States, it's now in Canada, it's in Australia and it's, uh, it pretty in print, I think most European countries where they've actually looked for it. Dana Lewis - Host : (42:44) Do you, in your initial reaction, which you described as feeling physically ill when you saw the increasing our rates, um, and realize this new VR variant, uh, had taken off, do you believe that, um, we are battling the clock in that this variant, it is just a matter of time because we're seeing mutations in the spike protein, which it attaches the vaccines attach onto. If we don't roll out vaccines effectively, if this is not handled quickly and the lid put back on all of this, that the virus is simply going to outpace and I'm smart than you vaccines, Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (43:30) You're quite right. I mean, at the moment, there is no evidence that it's made a big change to the ability of the vaccine to protect against that strain. The big problem though, is that we do, we S um, uh, I I've been saying this for some time and probably one of the few people in the UK that is actually, uh, quoted as saying this for some time. But, um, I was gratified to know that the chief scientist of the world health organization two days ago said exactly the same thing. We do not know whether any of the current vaccines actually stop infection. So, um, it is certainly plausible that the vaccines and I think the, um, there is, uh, I think the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine have actually looked at this and the thought does it didn't actually make that much difference to whether somebody an infection or not. But what it does is stop people or reduce the chances of people developing things symptomatic Dana Lewis - Host : (44:40) Right now. No, I'm alarmed now I'm alone, because what you're telling me is if it doesn't stop infection yeah, lets you continue on. But that means all of the social distancing, all of the mask wearing all of that is going to have to continue because this vaccine will continue to circulate and continue to mutate and develop. And eventually Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (45:00) It's quite plausible. Yeah. And it may well be the case that although at the moment that the spike proteins is still, uh, uh, uh, close enough for the vaccine to work, um, at some point, presumably it's quite possible that we will get some nutation that is, uh, that's the called escape mutants that, that no longer is controlled by the vaccine, but it shouldn't be that we weren't have to go through the huge process that we've had to this year to, to modify the vaccines for any new mutation. But the issue is in people who don't have vaccine, if it does, if these vaccines don't stop transmission, although they'll almost certainly reduce the probability of transmission, even if they don't stop, stop it, but if they don't stop it, then any concept of herd immunity from vaccination, just evaporates, you know, and, um, so that people who elect not to be vaccinated for whatever reason or can't because of preexisting disease or whatever, um, they're still very much at risk of getting the infection of getting severe disease and, and, and dying depending on other risk factors and their age and so on. Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (46:22) So yeah, it is. And, and I think with this, um, more infectious, um, variant that becomes even more difficult for people who don't have the vaccine, they're even more at risk of continuing to be getting the infection. So I think to be honest, I can't, you know, I, well, I've been saying for months that, you know, I can see my grandchildren's grandchildren, well, I won't be around then, but you know, I, I strongly suspect that my grandchildren's grandchildren will still be getting infections with COVID-19, but they almost certainly will not be dying by then. And almost certainly the disease that we S that they would experience, won't be that much different from the common cold. And that is, and I'm saying that because we know that's happened at least twice in the past, where a very similar to virus virus to COVID-19 has got into human society probably was responsible for large of deaths for the few years. And then after that, it just sort of, we came to a, um, um, uh, a, a situation where it was just the common cold bond, Dana Lewis - Host : (47:41) But you're saying there's still some very difficult years potentially ahead of us, even though the UK health minister was on television this morning, saying this is all going to be over in the spring. I mean, he is that's, I think that is in the extreme. Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (47:56) I think that is overly optimistic personally. I, it, I think the things will be a lot better by the spring. Don't get me wrong, you know, by the time we're into the spring and people who, um, are wanting are accepting of the vaccine of the vaccine that is going to make a huge difference. And I can't see next summer being anywhere near as difficult as this last year. And I, you know, um, uh, the, um, I quite personally, I totally expecting to be able to travel and go to meetings, um, come next summer and September again. Dana Lewis - Host : (48:38) You're right. I hope you're right. And I, uh, I'm watching president elect Biden criticize the Trump rollout of the vaccine because this is a race against time saying the way it's going. It will take years not months. The UK government seems poised and they have promised a speedy, efficient rollout, but they have bungled everything, uh, up until now. So Dr. Paul Hunter/ Virologist: (49:01) White Dana Lewis - Host : (49:04) Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the Norwich school of medicine, university of East Anglia. Great to talk to you, Paul. Thank you so much. Bye pleasure. Dana Lewis - Host : (49:13) That's our backstory, the last edition of 2020. We wish you, well, please subscribe to backstory. I've now launched a new newsletter to help you digest and navigate the daily news, because I think a lot of people and people tell me they don't know how to read daily news and watch television and figure out what's true. And what's disinformation. Check it out. Dana Lewis's backstory newsletter on sub stock. I'll try to explain news and give you an idea how I source it. And I'll even put the links there in 2021. I'll continue to bring you weekly podcasts focusing on international news. Here's what the astrologers say about 2020. It was a cataclysmic aligning of planets that ends in the new year. Thank goodness. And 2021 ushers in the age of Aquarius, what changes are astrologists predicting in 2021? If this year saw our regular ways of life up ended, then next year is tipped to offer technological advancements and the mending of communities they say on December the 21st, 20, 20 Jupiter and Saturn met in Aquarius. And they'll remain in this sign for the majority of year. Aquarius is a sign associated with abrupt change, forming communities fighting for causes that you care about and making technological advances. Anyway, that's what a stroller you're saying. And I think I'll take any good news at this point. Thanks for listening to backstory on Dana Lewis and London. And I'll talk to you again soon. On the other side in 2021,

#@ericding @BackStorywithDanaLewis covid19 covidvariant UKCovid Dr. Paul Hunter East Anglia university

0 notes

jinjikook · 7 years

Note

72 + jinjin (astro if that's ok) fluff/heated themes??

of course boo! thanks for requesting for some astro!!

72. “You’re competitive and so am I, and it’s going to lead to a fight.”

word count: 3.3k

pairing: reader/jinjin (ASTRO)

genre: fluff + heated themes + minimal angst; highschool AU

It was a coveted position, being the class president.

You always strove hard in class, putting your best foot forward with every subject and taking charge of the classroom. You were a force not to be reckoned with, not only a genius in school but also a very well-known person in the student body, having a reputation to be kind and fair and as well-rounded as one could be.

That is, until Park Jinwoo came into your life, quite suddenly.

He was a transfer student, apparently of the highest caliber. He had moved because of his parents and as much as it sucked to changed schools in his senior year, he still managed it all so well. He handled the tough workload that was suddenly thrusted into his arms, making friends along the way like it was nothing.

He flirted with the girls and charmed the teachers, worming his way into everyone’s hearts and minds within a month.

So when he showed up for Student Government and asked to run for the position of Class President, your jaw had nearly broken the desk you were sat at. You were a shoo-in for the position and yet here was this new kid trying to steal your place. You had worked too damn hard these last 3 and ½ years for some random exchange student to ruin it all for you.

“Sorry Mr. Kim, but haven’t elections already been set up? We’d have to change the ballots and everything, and that seems like an awful lot of work for Somin and Tiffany to have to do. They don’t deserve that, especially since they’ve worked so hard already.” You batted your eyelashes, putting on the sweet and innocent act in hopes to keep this meddler from throwing a wrench in your plans.

Your mom was the class president of her senior class, and your brother was his. This was your destiny, something you’ve wanted ever since you could read the words on the nice plaque they had gifted your older brother to commemorate the position.

Jinwoo piped up from where he stood, an air of politeness and something akin to cockiness swirling around him as he spoke. You really tried to keep your scowl from being visible; truly.

“Oh, if it’s too much of an inconvenience then I wouldn’t worry about it! I wouldn’t want to make such pretty ladies have to waste their time on me.” He smiled over at the two girls who were sharing a computer by the corner of the classroom, the two of them erupting in a fit of giggles at the charm he threw their way. It made you sick.

“It’s really no problem Mr. Kim, he can run if you don’t mind!” One of them shouted, the other still making googly eyes at Jinwoo, who had given them a small wink as thanks for being on his side.

You panicked, trying to find something, anything, to keep from having to compete for the position.

“But Mr. Kim–”

“If they don’t mind it Y/N, then I don’t see why not. It makes things more interesting, otherwise it would’ve just been you running and there’s no healthy competition in that! It’s always good to challenge yourself, does the brain and body good.” Mr. Kim began a long lecture about the merits of challenging oneself to do their best.

You slumped back into your seat and huffed, feeling defeated for the time being. You certainly didn’t miss Jinwoo smirking in your direction, having won the first battle of many.

This wasn’t over.

—

“And that’s why I believe we can all do our part to keep our campus clean and safe.” You finished your speech with a sparking smile, sure to dazzle your peers. They clapped and some of your friends whooped, giving you a huge morale boost as you stepped away from the podium and walked back to your seat.

“Excellent job Y/N, wonderfully put. You’ve always had a way with words, it’s sure to win your audience over. Alright, Jinwoo, you’re next!” Mr. Kim gave Jinwoo a hearty pat on the back as he made his way up to the podium, sans any papers or note cards or anything to reference for his speech.

“I’m not up here to preach, I don’t have any papers or presentations prepared.” The crowd of student government members looked over at one another, wondering where he was going with this. You just smiled at the fact that this was yours to win, he had nothing. It was irresponsible and reckless and it was going to be his downfall, you were sure of it.

“I’m here to speak from the heart, to ask you to help with something that we should all care about. This school needs to become a priority for people, because as much as we may gripe and complain about it to our parents,” He earned a few chuckles and nods from the students listening, “at the end of the day, it’s a gift to be given such a vital tool for our future.”

You crossed your arms against your chest and sat back in your chair, not caring how many jokes this kid had; you were still going to win.

“Now I bet you’re wondering ‘How the Hell is picking up trash going to help?’ Well young citizen, let me enlighten you…”

The speech went on for too long in your opinion but your phone had only timed it at 6 minutes and 53 seconds. Just under the perfect 7 minute parameters that Mr. Kim always talked about. Everyone had laughed throughout his adlibbed speech, clapping loudly when he was finished. Even some people began to chant his nickname, ‘JinJin’ when he stepped down.

This can’t be happening, you couldn’t lose to some clown from another district.

—

“What’s your problem?” Jinwoo approached you one day, his prized smirk on his face as he perched himself on the desk you were seated at.

The meeting for Student Government had concluded, just two weeks remaining for the two of you to finish preparing and promoting your positions for the elections. You had planned to stay behind and practice your speech, wanting to come off as more relaxed and outgoing–not like anyone in particular.

“I don’t know what you mean,” You brush him off, trying to keep a casual air about yourself. After all, you prided yourself in your maturity.

“I mean, all this snobby stuck-up act you always have going on. It’s like you have a stick in your ass 24/7. And not in the good way.” He tacked on with a snort, as if he’d made the joke of the century.

“I’m sorry, is my ability to be a mature adult bothering you? Maybe you should try it sometime?”

“Right, ‘mature’. That’s what it is. I just think you’re afraid–”

“What do I possibly have to be afraid of?” You shrugged, setting up your note cards at the make-shift podium as you prepared to rehearse like you originally intended to.

“Of me beating you. It’s very much possible, especially since you keep acting fake with everyone.” Okay that was a low blow, even for Jinwoo. You looked at him in disgust, not knowing how to respond to such an accusation. “If you were just yourself, you might have better chances of winning.”

“I have the best chances of winning because I am the best candidate for this position. Sorry that you’re too occupied checking out girls and kissing teacher’s asses to see that.” You brushed your hair behind your ear and cleared your throat, making it obvious that you were done speaking with Jinwoo.

“Nothing wrong with being someone’s favorite. Not that you would know.” Jinwoo exited with those last words, the pressure settling in your chest as they echoed in your head for hours after he had left.

He was right; the realization hit you like a truck and you couldn’t help the tears that slowly trailed down your cheeks as you cried instead of practicing your speech like you’d planned.

The walk home in the rain was the perfect cover for your mom when you came home, she was none the wiser that you’d been crying over some kid’s harsh words to you.

—

You were on the rooftop of the theater, a secluded space that barely anyone knew about. It was bright and airy up here, a private place for you and your thoughts.

Or so you thought.

“Woah, never pegged you as a ‘rooftop’ sort of chick.” His voice made you grit your teeth, the feeling of your heart tightening from the memory of his last words to you making you itch to cry again.

But you couldn’t do that in front of him. You couldn’t show weakness.

“Didn’t realize you had to be a type to enjoy some peace and quiet.” You kept your biting sarcasm short, not wanting to cause an uptick in your emotions. You weren’t sure just how well you could keep the tears at bay.

“Guess you’re right. Mind if I join you? The stress is getting to me, I could use some peace–”

“The quiet part means you don’t talk.”

“Right.”

Jinwoo sat next to you by the edge where it was closest to the middle of the campus, a clear shot of the courtyard from where you sat. You could see all the cliques, interacting with one another and enjoying their lunch amongst their peers.

The silence lasted for a solid minute before Jinwoo broke the concept once more.

“Do you always eat your lunch up here?” His voice wasn’t sharp, it wasn’t snarky or flirtatious. He sounded genuinely curious, you supposed that’s why you answered him.

“Not always. Just… often. I guess.” You didn’t take your eyes off the campus, watching as one of the soccer player boys kicked a ball over to the music program kids, flirting his way into the group until he tugged a blonde girl out to join him in a game of pass.

“Why?”

You shrugged, not really having a better answer for him than that. You weren’t really missed by your classmates if you went up here. Sure, you had friends and you weren’t exactly a loner, but you knew that if you had suddenly been moved to another school, you would be forgotten and replaced fairly quickly.

“Jinwoo, do your friends miss you? At your old school, I mean.”

“They text me from time to time, but we hang out as much as we can and we play video games online so… not that much time to miss.” Jinwoo looked over at you, your forlorn expression making him furrow his brows in concern. “Y/N, do you ever think you put too much priority on things like being the class president?”

You laughed, the bitter sound making you feel even more pitiful than before. You felt about 10 centimeters tall right now.

“Not that much else to do,” You mimicked his earlier response, finally tearing your eyes away from the kids down on the ground to look at Jinwoo, who had seated himself a little too close for comfort. His face wasn’t very far from yours, his own eyes dropping down for a moment to rest on the pout that naturally formed on your lips.

“I could think of a couple, just off the top of my head.” He murmured, his voice a little more labored as he inched closer. You could see the move from miles away, yet something in you didn’t want to stop him.

You should, he was terrible to you and he’s made your life a living hell from the first minute he’d showed up on campus. He hasn’t treated you with a single ounce of kindness since you first spoke and he surely hasn’t made an attempt to fix that anytime soon.

Yet as he came infinitely closer, you could only hold your breath and await for the inevitable.

But it never came.

Instead, his lips hovered over your own, his breath ghosting as he spoke, “This is already way better than practicing some dumb old speech, huh?” He huffed a chuckle that puffed over your mouth and his words brought shock to your system, waking you up from whatever trance he had you in as you pulled back quickly, standing up from where you were sat.

“It’s not some dumb speech, it’s important to me. If you can’t understand that, then maybe you shouldn’t be running for Class President!” You exclaimed, frustration digging into your skin as you realized how stupid it would’ve been to have done anything with Jinwoo.

“Honey, there’s more to life than some meritless title. The Prez doesn’t do anything, they’re just a figurehead to a bunch of hormonal and dumb teens. Pretty sure you don’t want to be known as the poster child for the graduating class of teen angst and acne.” He leaned back on his palms, still exuding an air of coolness and you hated it.

Everything he did, he did it was grace. He was suave, debonair; an asshole among it all. And he made your blood boil in ways you’d never felt before, heat pooling in places you’re sure it shouldn’t.

“In that case, why the hell are you even running?”

“Because. It’s fun. It gets me girls and if I win, it looks good on a college application and I won’t even have to do anything. Don’t tell me you actually think this position actually means something? Just another boring achievement kids rip themselves apart to try and reach.” He finally made his way onto his feet, dusting off whatever debris he thought was on his pants.

“Well it’s more than that to me. It’s something I have to do—”

“Wait, you have to? That’s bull Y/N. You don’t gotta do anything.”

“Maybe you don’t Jinwoo, but not everyone has that luxury in life and I’d appreciate it if you’d drop out of the running if all you have are wrong intentions for wanting to be President.” You gathered your things and made no motion to look back up at the other, not wanting to acknowledge him any further.

“Would that make you happy?” The question took you by surprise; it wasn’t sarcastic like you’d thought it would’ve sounded. You turned around to face him, just as you reached the door to the stairway off the rooftop.

“Yeah. It would.”

–

“Alright, so here are the final ballots for the election. Please proofread them and make sure everything is accurate before we send them to be printed off for the student body to use.” Mr. Kim passed around a few of the copies he’d made of the ballots Somin and Tiffany had made. A few murmurs made their way around the classroom, the keyword you’d heard being Jinwoo’s name. You wondered what all the commotion was but before you could ask, one of the copies was handed to you and your eyes scanned for your position and name. There it was, in dark bold letters and underlined. But it was what wasn’t there that made you stop in your tracks.

Jinwoo’s name was nowhere to be found.

You looked up and down on the page, flipping it to the back and flipping it once more when you were faced with the blank reverse side. Your eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, not understanding what was going on.

“Mr. Kim! Where’s Jinwoo’s name?” One student shouted from the back, a girl that Jinwoo had spent plenty of time flirting with all throughout his career here.

“Ah, yes. Mr. Park will not be running for office, he had decided to drop out at the last minute. A shame, really, but I’m sure he had his reasons. He was very adamant about it though, so I wouldn’t press him about it.” Mr. Kim told the class, some saddened groans coming from a few of the students around you. It hurt you a little, to know that they had wanted him to beat you so badly that the news made them so sour. But you were more confused more than anything else at the moment.

When the bell rang to signify lunch hour, you nearly bolted from the classroom, making your way up the stairs to the rooftop at a breakneck pace.

You found what you’d been looking for when you reached it, Jinwoo perched on the edge and looking down at the students; much like you usually would.

“Why?” Your voice broke whatever silence he’d been in, his head slowly turning to meet your gaze. He looked calm, as cool as always. But less arrogant, a softer aura of green surrounding him instead of the usual striking orange.

“I don’t know what you mean Y/N—”

“I mean why the fuck did you drop out of the running?” You shook the ballot you had taken, crumpling the page in the process as you stood there panting—partly because of your flaring anger and also from the run up the stairs.

“Because you asked me to.” He shrugged, as if it was all no big deal. But this was a very big deal, you had made that crystal clear to him. “You said it’d make you happy, and that’s all I wanted.”

It was too many emotions at once, all of them clouding your vision and judgement as you dropped your bookbag and let the ballot swirl off with the wind right over the edge of the roof as you leapt forward into Jinwoo’s space. You reached for the collar of his jacket and tugged him into a kiss, feeling his lips stiffen in surprise at your bold move. It didn’t stop you from pressing further, grip hard on his jacket as you shut your eyes and let the moment succumb the two of you.

Jinwoo finally caught on and his hands snaked around your waist, his lips molding against yours and you breathed a sigh of relief.

You two broke apart, a soft smacking sound following as you took in a couple of deep gulps of air, not realizing how you’d held your breath through the kiss. Jinwoo’s hands now were at the small of your back, holding you in a gentle hug as he looked you in the eyes, the soft brown of his irises making you melt a little.

“Took you long enough, and here I thought I’d have to get a big neon sign just to point you in the right direction.” He laughed, breathless and light.

“Wait, was that your sorry attempt at flirting with me? By making me miserable and trying to one-up me everywhere I go?” You laughed out of the sheer humor of the situation. This sounded like it was something straight out of a cheesy romantic comedy that you’d probably go see on the weekends with a couple of friends.

“It was a sound strategy, since you wouldn’t have even batted an eyelash in my direction if I wasn’t involved in this whole student government thing.” You shrugged as you accepted his reasoning, though you weren’t sure if you were ready to let him off the hook just yet for making you cry a few times too many. “Now, isn’t this way more fun than practicing some dumb old speech?” You giggled and reached to wrap your arms around his neck, tugging him down into another kiss.

Yeah, this was pretty fun too—Jinwoo didn’t have to know you thought that though.

“I’m not sure how this relationship is gonna work out, you’re competitive and so am I, and it’s going to lead to a fight.”

“Guess we’re just gonna have to strap in for the ride and find out eventually.” Jinwoo mumbled against your lips before locking you into a kiss once more.

You’re going to have to kick his ass one day for causing you hell but for right now, this worked for you.

request a drabble to celebrate 1k! I’m clearing out the remaining requests, thanks for playing!

#kreativewritersnet #astro #jinjin #park jinwoo #jinwoo #drabble prompt game

42 notes · View notes

narcissusneverknewme · 8 years

Text

Protection Detail P1C2

Chapter Two: Harry’s a Stalker. Again.

Harry spent the next two weeks mostly uneventfully, following Malfoy around school between classes and trying to fool himself into thinking that no one would notice.

Most days it wasn’t too bad, Harry just made sure Malfoy made it either to class or to a point in the castle where Susan Bones or Neville took up guard duty. Thursdays, though, Malfoy and he had a free period, when it was far more difficult to follow him without suspicion and when Harry really would rather be studying for his NEWTs.

Good thing for Harry, his obsession with Malfoy’s illicit activities two years prior had given him excellent Malfoy-stalking abilities. Or so he thought.

Potions had ended early but Malfoy was talking his dearest, sweetest time to gather his things. Harry tried to take as long as he could. Finally, Malfoy left and Harry paused for a few seconds, then followed. When he exited the dungeon, which was now empty except for Slughorn, Malfoy was nowhere in sight. Oddly anxious, Harry began walking in the direction Malfoy should have gone, so long as no one ambushed him in the brief seconds Harry had waited to follow.

Harry had gone less than ten paces when something grabbed him by the arm and yanked him into an empty classroom. Harry had his wand out before the door had swung shut behind him. He lowered it only slightly when he recognized his attacker.

“Malfoy?”

“Leave me alone.” Malfoy said, pointing, his finger inches from Harry’s chest. Harry opened his mouth to point out that Malfoy had dragged him in there, not the other way around, but before he could say so Malfoy continued, “I don’t need anyone following me around, especially not you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about?” Harry said without much hope.

“Come off it, Potter.” Malfoy spat. He dropped the accusatory finger and sneered, “You’ve hardly been subtle.”

“Right. Well. I still have no idea what you’re on about but--”

Malfoy took a step forward, Harry backed into the door. Why can’t they swing outward? He thought wildly of a time when Cho Chang had once had him in a similar position. The trapped feeling was just as alarming but the comparison made Harry as amused as it did uncomfortable. Unwilling to complete the rest of the experience with Malfoy, Harry placed his hand squarely on the other boy’s chest and pushed him back, hard, while stepping forward. He flung the door open.

“And Potter! Get Bones and Neville off my back!” Malfoy called after him.

“Or what?” Harry muttered to himself.

###

Harry was late to Transfiguration. He’d had a strange day already. A sixth year Ravenclaw had tried to hex Malfoy in the hallway. Her target had blocked her silently but did nothing else to acknowledge that she’d even tried. Nothing more had happened but the attempt had put Harry a little on edge so when Susan wasn’t at the agreed halfway point, Harry had been forced to follow Malfoy all the way to his class.

As he’d reached the entrance to the classroom, Malfoy had turned, scanned the crowed, locked gazes with Harry for a moment then rolled his eyes with so much vigor and so far back into his head that Harry was sure he would hurt himself. Having given up trying to make his eyeballs cartwheel through space and time, Malfoy reestablished eye contact in order to raise his eyebrows and deliberately turn away, stalking into his class with a flourish. The whole thing had been so theatrical that Harry fought a smile all the way to class. Until he realized he was late. He’d sprinted the last few steps and burst into transfiguration.

Professor McGonagall turned to look at him, “Ah. Mr. Potter. I see you’ve elected to join us.”

“Yes, Professor, I have.” Answered Harry as he moved to his seat. Her lips thinned but she resumed her lesson without further comment. After class she asked him to stay behind. Hermione sighed and Ron gave him a ‘this is Malfoy’s fault but also yours’ look.

Professor McGonagall must have requested Neville stay behind after class too, at some point, because he had. Harry tried to remember her making the request, or anything else from the lesson but he couldn’t. His thoughts had apparently been elsewhere.

Professor McGonagall look at the pair of them seriously, “Potter, Longbottom, I just wanted to say that it can’t be easy, what you two are doing for Mr. Malfoy.”

Harry interrupted, flushing a deep red, “I don’t... what you’re... talking about professor. Apart from not hexing him myself--”

“Potter, who do you think I am?” Professor McGonagall asked, “The number of ‘accidents’ he encounters on a daily basis has decreased almost to your normal levels. His scores have improved immensely in the last--”

Harry interrupted again, “Forgive me, professor, but I don’t give half a box of Bertie Bott’s for Malfoy or his scores and I’m not sure why you’re telling me about either of them.” he said.

Professor McGonagall fixed him with her usual piercing stare, but there was humor behind her eyes when she said finally, “Well, very well Potter. I suppose you’ve not been helping him either, Longbottom?”

“I brought him your homework once, professor…” Neville said, clearly doubting his ability to convincingly lie to McGonagall.

“Okay.” Said Harry, “so he might give a box of Bertie Botts…”

Neville repressed a smile and Professor McGonagall’s eyes twinkled, “You two had better get off to your classes, then. I imagine it wouldn’t do any good to speak with Ms. Bones?” she asked.

Harry and Neville responded with their best “who?” expressions until suddenly Harry remembered she’s not been at their usual pass off point.

Panicking a little he said, “Speaking of, have you seen her around today, Neville?”

“No I have--” he froze and met Harry’s eyes with a look of horror, “have you?”

Harry turned to the ever-perceptive McGonagall who looked mildly alarmed herself, “Well,” he said, “it’s been grand, we should catch up sometime, see you ‘round Professor.” he said, grabbing Neville by the arm and practically dragging him out of the room.

Just outside the door Harry said, “I’ll check his Muggle Studies before I go to my next class. I’ll get him to the Great Hall.”

Neville nodded, “I’ve got him after lunch.”

While Neville headed off to his Muggle Art class, Harry practically ran to Burbage’s. He burst in partway through a lecture on muggle fashion, panting heavily, having run the whole way.

He scanned the class’s alarmed and curious faces quickly, eyes landing on the palest, pointest of them. Malfoy had adopted a look of intense focus with the rest of the class at Harry’s wild entrance. As Harry’s attention fixed on him, Malfoy relaxed. He raised his thin eyebrows and crossed his too-thin arms, making his entire attitude a challenge.

“Mr. Potter!” Professor Burbage exclaimed, drawing Harry’s eyes to her for the first time, “is everything alright?”

“Yeah he’s-- it’s! It’s fine. Sorry, professor, I-- wrong class. Sorry.” As he left, Harry caught Draco’s eye momentarily and was met with a look of amused irritation. It was full of amusement at Harry’s expense, but it somehow seemed fundamentally different from the usual snide mockery they exchanged.

As Harry made his way through the castle he continued to mull over that expression. What had been different about it? Draco had been annoyed, obviously, but the look he had sent Harry held something else too. It was not exactly conspiratorial, but that was close. The more Harry pictured it the more it seemed almost… affectionate? Like the way Harry looked at Ron when he went off on a twenty minute rant about the Chudley Cannons.

Oh, Merlin’s thumb, no. Harry thought desperately. Malfoy and I are not about to start being friendly. No.

By the time his class ended, however, Harry was sure he had imagined the familiarity in the short look. He was also becoming increasingly aware of how stupid and concerned he himself had appeared. When lunchtime came around it became clear that it was going to be a long time before Harry lived it down.

He hadn’t had the opportunity to tell Ron and Hermione about this embarrassing venture. After class, to which he had been the of kind late that the Weasley twins themselves had only managed a handful of times, he had been forced to practically run through the castle so he could trail five or six students behind Malfoy as he made his leisurely way to the Great Hall.

Draco liked to make sure that Harry knew that Draco knew that Harry was following him and that he had a very low opinion of Harry’s sneaking capabilities. He therefore made it a point to lift a scathing eyebrow in Harry’s direction. Today, though, he sent him the same smug smile, raised eyebrows, and twinkling eyes that he’d worn in Muggle Studies.

They reached their regular seats at opposite sides of the Hall at nearly the same time and sat down almost in sync. With Malfoy safely seated at his house table, Harry let his focus turn to Ron and Hermione.

He told them quietly about running into Professor Burbage’s class and waited with good humor as they roared with laughter at his embarrassment. While he waited, Harry looked over to see Draco watching them. Harry raised an eyebrow. Malfoy stared then raised one of his own in answer.

“Listen mate, if you like staring into another bloke’s eyes, that’s fine with me. But not Malfoy and not in the Great Hall, please.” Said Ron, jerking Harry’s attention back to his own table. Harry colored, feeling slightly offended.

Hermione elbowed Ron in the side and hissed something into his ear that sounded like “not now!”

Ron grimaced, “Now you’ve hurt me, you have to kiss me to make up for it.”

Hermione blushed lightly and leaned in. Harry looked away, wincing and resisting the urge to ask what happened to the ‘not in the Great Hall’ policy. Unnoticed by the three friends at Gryffindor table, Malfoy rolled his eyes at their antics and moved his attention to his text book.

###

It turned out that Susan had gone home for a family emergency and would be gone for days. This meant Harry and Neville had to do an awful lot of jogging around. Ron thought this a good reason to give up on the whole thing, Hermione said nothing except to mention that it seemed to be working as far as Malfoy was concerned at least, and Ginny insisted that this was “good for your waistline, Harry.”

After Harry was held back in Herbology to discuss extra credit one Monday, he had to literally sprint all the way to Flitwick’s, trying to catch Draco before he disappeared on his free period. This was the time he was most likely to be attacked, because it was when he was most likely to be alone. He had a terrible habit of getting lost in empty parts of the library or grounds that tended to result in trips to the hospital wing or at the very least detention for duelling. Apart from Monday afternoons and weekends, attempts on Draco’s life and limb had become extremely rare. Despite their best efforts, most of the school now knew that Harry and Neville (two of the oldest and most popular boys in the school, and known members of the D.A.) were on Draco’s protection detail.

Arriving sweaty and disheveled outside of Malfoy’s Charms class, Harry saw that he need not have run. Draco had not even begun to leave, as was talking to Professor Flitwick. Perhaps hearing Harry’s erratic footfalls, Draco and Professor Flitwick turned to see Harry arrive looking agitated and a bit wild.

Malfoy rolled his eyes, grabbed his bag, and threw it at Harry, who caught it just before it hit him in the face.

“Afternoon, Professor.” Draco said to a shocked Professor Flitwick, by way of farewell. He gestured toward the bag in Harry’s arms as he swept passed, “Thought I’d let you carry my books and save you the trouble of asking.”

Harry stared after him for a moment as he strolled off. Falling into step beside him, Harry shoved Malfoy’s books back into his arms with a muttered “shove off.” and stopped walking to let Draco go ahead. Malfoy stopped too. They stared at one another.

“You are absolutely absurd.” Malfoy declared, walking again.

They walked in silence for a while, Harry trailing slowly behind, trying to regain his usual minimum eight-pace distance until Malfoy grew impatient. Turning around he exclaimed, “Are you honestly going to follow me around all period? Hecate’s eyes, Potter! If I needed a lapdog I’d get one.”

‘Lapdog?’ He was a guard dog, at the very least. “Maybe you should consider it, though I prefer the larger breeds myself.” Said Harry.

“Do you have any conception of how ridiculous you are?” Harry didn’t answer so Malfoy continued, “I’m going to the library. It’s impossible to even see a person from ten feet back in there so you may as well just--”

“What? Come with you? Sorry, carrying your books is one thing but a study date is entirely another.”

“Excellent. Because I was about to suggest you sod off.” Draco said.

Harry thought for a moment. “Fine. I’ll walk with you then.”

“That is the complete opposite--” Malfoy began. Harry, ignored him.

“Let’s go.” He said with mock enthusiasm, coming to stand next to Malfoy.

“You’re absurd.”

“You said that already.”

The library was quiet and musty as usual. Harry and Draco quickly found a secluded table. Harry pulled out his potions homework and Draco, after gathering an armful of books, did the same. They worked in silence for some time.

“That’s pathetic.” Draco drawled. Harry looked up to see Malfoy’s eyes on his paper, “You’re just making that up.”

Harry glared defensively, “Not all of us feel the need to pull from six books to write one stupid potions essay.”

“Oh, clearly. You seem to feel a need to turn in absolute garbage.”

“Wow I didn’t realize you were grading these. I guess I should have taken that into account.”

“I knew you passed all your classes on charm. It isn’t possible to make it to NEWT level writing essays based on how you imagine potions interact with each other in the body; not without relying entirely on favoritism.”

A memory of a little twelve year old boy stirred in Harry’s mind. He’d spoken in a tone that was far more bitter than what the young man next to Harry used now, but the sentiment had been the same. He’d said that Hogwarts teachers had favorites, he’d named Hermione and Harry. “...everyone thinks he's so smart..." Harry smiled.

“I heard you say something about my winning charm once. I can’t really recall,” Harry said slowly and untruthfully. “Hmm… All I can remember is something about ‘wonderful Potter with his scar and his broomstick...?’” Harry paused, looking over at Draco, who was staring at him, “Isn’t that what you said? And I think your dad said that you’d told him that twelve time already? I must say, that’s rather a compliment and not generally how I’d describe--”

“How did-- But when...?” Draco spluttered.

Harry laughed. “You and Lucius were in Borgin and Burkes. Second year, I think? Yes, because you weren’t playing quidditch yet.”

Draco stared. “And you remember our conversation?”

“It was about me.” Harry said fairly. Draco stared, eyebrows raised. “And it was a memorable trip. My first time using the Floo Network, actually.”

“I almost forgot you were raised by muggles.” Draco said in a voice that belied the statement. Harry rolled his eyes.

“Yeah well I didn’t almost forget you were raised by Malfoys.” Said Harry.

“Right.” Said Draco, turning back to his homework. There was a short silence.

“Wait. So how do a Hiccuping Solution and a Wiggenweld Potion interact?”

###

Harry and Draco now spent most of their free periods sniping at each other over homework. Harry also stopped following him around everywhere. Mostly he walked next to him, which apparently is what Neville had been doing the whole time, and Susan had been since Malfoy first told her to bugger off. She had concluded that if he already knew she was doing it, she may as well stop pretending.

By the Christmas holidays Susan and Malfoy had clearly become accidental friends and talked easily when together. Neville had been disgustingly kind and genuine from the start of term feast. Harry, it seemed, was the only one who had stubbornly refused to actually be friendly towards the boy he was spending all of his free time protecting.

Harry had been assuming that Malfoy would go home for Christmas but discovered that this was not the case, according to Hermione, who had found out courtesy of Ginny (once again via Zabini, who it seemed was now keeping in touch with Malfoy).

“Oi! Malfoy!” Called Ron, earning a jab from Harry. Draco looked at Ron with an expression of deepest distain, but paused to allow the trio to catch up to him and Neville on their way from the greenhouses.

“Hi guys,” Neville said.

“Hey,” Hermione said briefly. She turned to Draco, “The other night Ginny said something I wanted… to ask you about... ”

Hermione was staring at Malfoy like she’d never seen him before. Harry quickly checked Draco over, wondering if there was an injury he was concealing, but saw no trace of one. Meanwhile, Malfoy was looking at Hermione like she was crazy. There was a long pause.

“I don’t anticipate it being the least bit interesting, but please, go on. What did Ginny Ginger say?” Malfoy said.

“I… A number of highly interesting things, actually,” she answered, looking flustered, “One of them being that you’re staying for the holidays?”

Everyone’s eyes, which had been trained on Hermione and her odd behavior, turned to Draco.

“I am.” He said.

“Oh dear. I’m not.” Said Neville.

“You’re not?” Asked Harry, momentarily distracted.

“No, I’m spending it with Luna, Seamus, and Dean. We’re going looking for some kind of rare imp. Early birthday present for Luna. I can’t remember what she called them.” Hermione snorted at the sound of regret in Neville’s voice. Clearly she didn’t think that forgetting the name of one of Luna’s “rare” creatures constituted a tragedy.

“Well that’s it, then. You’re going to have to go home,” said Ron decidedly, “Susan’s not staying and Harry’s supposed to come home for the holidays this year.”

“What? The muggles suddenly want him around?”

“No, home. With his family.” Ron said.

“Oh, you mean to your little rabbit’s burrow.” Draco said.

“It’s fine,” Harry cut in before Ron could retort, “Your mum will understand, Ron. It’s my last Christmas in Hogwarts, she’ll understand if I want stay at school.”

Draco rolled his eyes, “You are ludicrous, Potter. Just go. We wouldn’t want you to disappoint Mrs. Stote and the 11 carrots she calls children.”

It was a testament to how much time the four of them had been spending with Draco that no one reacted more violently than with raised eyebrows and pursed lips.

“HA. Your own common room won’t be safe during the winter holidays, let alone the corridors,” said Harry.

“You lot are ridiculous. I was fine during the month before you morons started following me around like lost ducklings, and I’ll be fine while you’re gone. I can take care of myself, you know.”

“‘Fine for the first month?’” Harry repeated incredulously, “Malfoy, Neville actually carried you to the welcoming feast.” Neither Neville nor Draco appeared to appreciate this comment.

Hermione, who had been silently observing the conversation finally chimed in, “Actually, I’d been thinking that I’d like to stay. Ginny was saying something similar last night.”

###

It was decided then, despite Draco and Ron’s protests, that Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Ginny, and Draco would stay at the castle for the Holidays. Harry and Hermione had insisted that Ron needn’t change his plans for them, but in the end he said there was no point in going home if his sister and best friends were remaining at school.

“Alright, tag you’re it,” Harry told Draco, who looked at Harry like he’d lost his mind, “I’m not running around after you all break,” Harry continued, “I do that enough. Your turn.”

They had been discussing something Ron had overheard earlier that day. A pair of third year Slytherins in the bathroom had been talking not-so-secretly about a boy, Bonneville, who was staying at the castle for the Christmas holidays with the sole purpose of getting a shot at cursing Malfoy.

“I told you.” Harry had exclaimed at this revelation.

He, Ron, Hermione, and Draco had been standing together in the corridor, just after leaving Defense Against the Dark Arts, their last class of the term.

“I’m more than a match for Bonneville. He’s a seventh year. I mean, he did well in Carrow’s class but his aim is terrible.” Draco had drawled with an exaggerated lack of concern.

“Yeah, maybe. If he took you on headfirst, out in the open. How about from behind in your own common room while you’ve got your face pressed into The Alchemist’s Almanac. How’d you like to die with your nose buried in that stupid thing?”

“That would be humiliating,” agreed Ron, “I mean, if that’s how you’ve gotta go, you should at least do it with something vaguely interesting in your hand. The Alchemist’s Almanac?”

Harry had given Draco a look of triumph. He’d been making fun of him for his choice in leisure literature for days.

Draco had sighed dramatically, “What do you want me to do about it?”

“I guess you’ll just have to spend as little time as possible in there. Keep your guard up when you do. Use protection spells around where you sleep and never go anywhere alone?”

“Sounds reasonable.” Ron had said, nodding.

“You’re completely mad. Absolutely paranoid. The lot of you.”

“I guess we’ll all have to pay extra attention,” Hermione had said, purposefully rubbing it in to irritate Draco, “and make sure you’re never alone.”

That’s when Harry had made his “tag you’re it” comment. Draco adopted a look of horror, “follow you three? All holiday? I think not, Potter. It’s going to take at least one of the Unforgivables to force me into chasing you around."

Hermione snorted while Ron’s false cough’s did nothing to conceal the words “didn’t use to.”

Draco’s eyes narrowed. “Say that again, Weasley.” The threat in his voice was palpable, “I couldn’t quite understand you.”

“What?” replied Ron quickly with a grin, “I didn’t say anything.”

#drarry #harry/draco #harry potter #harry x draco #Draco Malfoy #protection detail #maykomakesstuff #hp #fanfiction #fanfic #the chapter title is a link

6 notes · View notes