Un-masking the light in-between fact and fabrication

Abstract

As I write this essay on a extremely hot afternoon in July of 2022, the general feeling in Malta is similar to the one in most of the countries around the world; that of business as usual. The everyday seems unhampered by the ghostly memories of the months spent in mandatory lockdown, an absurd and apprehensive reality that was brought about by the strong clasp of a virus whose presence we have now learnt to incorporate in our day-to-day. Still, Malta is experiencing yet another spike in confirmed COVID-19 pandemic cases, the numbers of which have now exceeded a hundred and eleven thousand since those first reported at the beginning of March of 2020, bringing with them a death toll of over seven hundred and eighty people to date. At present, Malta has the highest virus positivity rate in the EU, at more than 40%. Such information, which used to be somewhat worrying only months ago, has become just another unheeding statistic which wades in the overflow of daily information coming our way.