REALITY CHECK It ain’t over yet, folks. As the PHIs have warned, if the public fails to follow the protocols stipulated by the authorities, we may as well kiss goodbye to enjoying the festive season yet again, should another wave of the deadly virus eventuate. And indeed, the numbers have nudged up slightly in recent weeks. On top of how the people behave, there are three other risks worth noting with ‘staying safe’ in mind: first, there’s the shameless state of our public transport system (thanks to successive governments that have paid lip service to serving the people who elect them), and a lack of any form of physical distancing on our buses and trains; second, the insistence in some quarters of hosting large functions despite knowing the risks cannot be ignored; and last but not least, the rallies and public events held at the behest of our politicians on both sides of the divide! As for immunisation and virus mitigation efforts, thankfully there’s been great progress with around 85 percent of the 16 and over age group having had two jabs and the number of active cases falling from more than 25,000 a month ago to less than 15,000 in mid-November. A nation that faces multiple crises simply cannot afford another wave of this ongoing menace – and one hopes that sanity prevails… at least among the people!