March 23rd has been declared a National Day of Reflection – the anniversary of the first Covid-19 lockdown. There will be a nationwide minute of silence at midday, candles and lanterns will be lit and bells will toll.
However, for me it is today, March 16th, that marks a year since I, together with everyone aged 70 and over, was locked down. It was a bitter blow, not least because it divided husband and wife. My 68 year old spouse could go shopping and visit friends, whilst I was advised only to leave home for exercise. On the 18th I blogged:
"Day 3, and the walls are closing in. As the dawn broke this morning, I lay in bed, fully awake, and felt trapped – a prisoner in my own home."
Thankfully, the government quickly realised that such restrictions should be based on health, not age alone, and within three weeks we were shopping together once more. For me, the worst weeks of the entire lockdown were over.
Despite this, the same flawed ideas came to the fore again in May. The reasoning was simple: if we lock down all the oldies, they won't be at risk of serious illness and the rest of the population can get on with life. Try telling that one to Care Home staff, or multi-generational families living in the same house!
Re-reading that old post was both interesting and poignent. I was still hoping to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary with a holiday in Ireland in mid-August, though I was already having doubts. In the event, we postponed Ireland to 2021 and went to Devon. Much more seriously, I reported that Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's chief scientific officer, was hoping that the death toll from COVID would not exceed 20,000. "That sounds an horrendously high figure," I commented, little realising that the UK death toll would eventually exceed 125,000.
125,000... what a truly ghastly statistic! And what of the countless doctors, nurses and carers who risked their lives to care for the sick and dying? The least I can, and will, do is to stand in silence for a minute on March 23rd.
Everyone would have been appalled if they'd known how long the pandemic would last, and the current flare-ups on continental Europe and elsewhere suggest that while we in the UK might be almost back to normal in early summer, we won't be able to travel overseas. A lot of people will despair at the thought.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping that the virus eventually mutates into a form that does little harm, and that by then most people will have been vaccinated anyway.
I have to say that all the selfish or misguided or mischievous people who did things to undermine sensible efforts to control the spread of the virus ought to be held to account. Though how, I do not know.
Lucy