At The Pride of Andover Awards in Andover, I succumbed to the overwhelming conclusion that I had become too unwell to remain and enjoy one of the best nights in our town's social calendar. 

How can we move forward with AI, The Arms Race, Environmental issues, Space Travel, Climate Change, Nuclear worries, Wars, the Presidential Elections, Knife Crime, Pollution, International Catastrophes, when we cannot find a cure for the common cold, inluenza, and what we euphemistically refer to, as bugs? 

The phrase: “It’s just a bug going round” varies in severity, affecting the vulnerable amongst us, with the simple act of breathing, resulting in possible further complications like pneumonia, and bronchitis.

 In days gone by, funds were invested to find a cure at a nearby facility, somewhere on the road to Salisbury. 

 It beggars’ belief that we are racing ahead me included, searching for our personal eutopia, when a simple bug like the one I’m recovering from, can physically ground me.

Should we perhaps not be better served, investing into the best minds around, to help find a cure for the cold, flu, and bugs, first?

Manuela Garry Wahnon

Send letters by email to newsdesk@andoveradvertiser.co.uk or by post to Editor, Andover Advertiser/Basingstoke Gazette, Absolutely Offices, Lutyens Cl, Lychpit, Basingstoke RG24 8AG.