Science holds the answer, or has the potential to provide an answer to most of the burning questions in today's world.

All one needs to do is to take a look at the disease which is currently affecting each and every country in the world and see the fantastic work that scientists and health care professionals are doing in order to combat it.  

Indeed, without the brilliance of medicine and science, the future in a post-covid-19 world would have been very different from that which we will enter into once vast amounts of people in Europe and elsewhere are vaccinated. 

Humankind has passed through various pandemics - only just over 100 years ago a new kind of influenza at the time infected thirty per cent of the world's population. The pandemic lasted three years, continuing until 1921.  

"What happened then is that there was enough herd immunity or pre-existing immunity that it actually became the seasonal flu strain," virologist Dr Kirsty Short (University of Queensland) told one of the international media when asked about how that pandemic ended.

Back then, herd immunity was achieved in the absence of a vaccine and it came at a huge cost - tens of millions of people died around the world. In the present-day pandemic, things are different. 

This time round, we do have a vaccine to combat the disease and countries are currently inoculating the respective populations. Malta is doing so with impressive efficiency and expediency.

Malta has the highest Covid-19 vaccination rate in the whole of the European Union.  Indeed Malta administered almost 110,000 first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, covering around 17% of the population. More than 8% had received the second jab.

This is truly heartening news and an enormous amount of appreciation should be given to all the people working in Health Care who are making this happen.

In particular 82% of those aged over 80 had received the vaccine, along with 55% of vulnerable people. Vaccination has now started on those between the age of 60 and 79 years.

Until the national vaccination process is complete, we all have to play our part to curb the transmission of the virus, particularly in the light of the fact that the variant which has originated in the UK is highly-infectious and accounts for almost 60-61% of all new COVID-19 cases here in Malta.

In fact the variant, known as B.1.1.7, has been reported to be behind the high numbers of daily virus cases. Prime Minister Robert Abela has duly announced new restrictions to curb the spread of the malady.

It is crucial that we diligently abide by the rules so that we can safeguard our national health scheme and the population at large.

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Although science does so much to improve daily life in an enormous way, we have to admit that for most of us it still belongs in the realm of a small section of the population, notably science professionals and researchers.

In order to do my small share to overcome this apparent barrier, I have decided to put some focus on scientists who ply their trade in the various villages and cities in Malta.

In fact each sizeable village would normally have a medical doctor and medical team serving it, a pharmacy and a dental clinic. Other larger cities would even host research-based businesses or innovation hubs but a doctor, dentist and pharmacist would normally be found in most villages. 

The service those three professions and ancillary health carers provide to the communities is crucial and normally the link between the professionals and the clients/patients would be based on a tremendous sense of trust.

I had the pleasure of visiting a clinic in Zurrieq called St Mary's clinic which is run by a medical doctor named Dr Bjorn Buhagiar. During the visit, I was accompanied by Zurrieq Mayor Rita Grima who herself is an accomplished midwife.

I really enjoyed meeting Dr Buhagiar and the professional staff at the clinic. He explained to me the innovations he carefully introduced in the delivery of the services his clinic provides in order to increase efficiency and improve the standards.

In particular the clinic introduced another layer of preparation, which they call the pre-hospital stage, between the visit at the clinic and admission to hospital so that the patient would be prepared with the necessary tests and procedures.

Truly, innovation is the result of the ability to anticipate new realities and the quest of achieving better standards. I wish Dr Buhagiar and his team all success!

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Meghan Markle has indeed taken the world by storm. I have to admit that I too could not resist searching for the best parts of the Oprah interview on youtube.com to then watch some of it in between meetings. Do not blame me please, as another 49.1 million people either watched the original interview or opted to watch it online!

I have to declare that I am completely averse in principle to the practice of going public on private and family matters. Therefore before clicking play I had already made up my mind that the interview was a bad idea although, as I said, I ended up watching it.

The setting of the interview was as beautiful as it could be and very royal. Both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are very attractive, youthful and charismatic and know very well how to communicate a message.

I am sure that the people of the elder generation and history lovers could not help drawing up similarities - as unjust and unfair as they may be - between the Duchess of Sussex and the Duchess of Windsor. I personally believe that the American citizenship of the two ladies and the fact that they married into the British Royal family are the only two things they have in common. 

It was once said that people love the British Royal family because it is a family and like all families it has moments were some of its members do not see eye to eye, or utter statements which other members might find hurtful.

I sincerely hope that Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex find happiness together in their lives, in the course they have charted for themselves. I also augur that the relationship between the couple and the rest of the Royal family improves and that, through conversation, any differences are resolved.