It may be unkind and is certainly politically incorrect but Topical overheard a chat between two Winston Churchill fans, recounting his witticisms. “I like the line ‘I’ve got more out of alcohol than it has ever got out of me’ one said. The other responded ‘and I like his observation ‘I drink to make boring people more interesting.’

Narrabri Rotary is proud of its role as part of the Rotary International project to eliminate polio around the world. In August, Rotarians globally celebrated a milestone when Africa was declared free of wild poliovirus. About 30 years ago almost 350,000 people around the world suffered from polio. Now it survives only in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the program to stamp out polio in those two countries is going the wrong way. In Pakistan the number of cases has risen from 12 in 2018 to 147 last year. In Afghanistan the Taliban prohibited door to door teams in the areas they control and has killed a health worker and two police guards, saying that vaccinations are a western conspiracy to weaken Islam, a claim which has spread widely on social media.

The UK is gearing up for mass vaccinations once COVID-19 vaccines are ready to go. The National Health Service is planning ‘Nightingale Vaccination Centres’ to inject 2500 people per day. The National Health Service is buying 400 million doses of six different vaccines – Oxford University/Astra Zeneca (the one Australia is buying) and Pfizer are front runners.