It’s Life Jim, But Not As We Know It

It’s just a few short days since we walked back into our own home, which in itself was a strange feeling given that we hadn’t expected to see our home again for a long time yet. Not quite as strange though as coming to terms with how much has changed in those few days, for us, for our country, for the world.

On a personal level, it’s still hard to take in that our plans for the entire year have gone, plans and dreams which were so long in the making, let alone taking in this unchartered territory which now surrounds us.

We retired at Christmas with the sole intention of travelling the world; without that dream, it’s unlikely we would have finished working. There is no way we would have retired to do nothing, yet now, that is suddenly precisely what we are facing, and it’s disorientating, especially with current restrictions meaning we can’t even resume our social life.

Some things confound us though. The UK is now close to lockdown, yet our re-entry to the country on Tuesday was extremely laid back. No health checks, no forms to fill in, no questionnaires, no interviews, not even hand gel or guidance leaflets. We simply walked through the Heathrow terminal unhindered and unquestioned, which was odd to say the least.

Second, now that we’ve researched all Government advice and guidance, we have our instructions on self isolation, social distancing, and also on what to do if we suffer the symptoms of the virus. In the event that we do suffer symptoms, we are told we don’t need to notify anyone unless we fall in need of hospital treatment. So, if sufferers aren’t reporting, what in God’s name is the point of reporting the number of new cases daily? By definition, that number is wildly inaccurate and it is surely pointless to release it.

if you have coronavirus symptoms:

• do not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital
• you do not need to contact 111 to tell them you’re staying at home
• testing for coronavirus is not needed if you’re staying at home

Lastly, and the biggest question of all: the action being taken by nations worldwide, is quickly bringing the World economy to its knees; I read yesterday that every single airline on the planet will go bust by May unless they receive financial bail out. Businesses across the globe are forecast to fail, share prices are plummeting, supply chains are creaking. And it’s only just begun. A collapse of the World economy will destroy lives and kill millions, in developing countries as well as the modern world. My question is this: at what point does the damage inflicted by these actions outweigh the damage caused by the virus itself? At what point do we decide that the devastation caused by COVID-19 is less impactful than the devastation caused by the collapse of the World economy?

And, if such a pinch point exists, what do we do? Remove the defences and let the virus run its course? Or compromise on the degree of defence in order to avoid killing millions through economic collapse? And, if such a critical decision point does exist, which country would have the balls to initiate that call?

One final, slightly more frivolous, point, on the subject of panic buying, with our supermarket shelves all but empty. Leaving to one side the entire deplorable mentality of panic buying, it beggars belief to us that there is no toilet paper anywhere in town, yet the wine shelves are fully stocked. We can only conclude that everyone else’s priorities are different from ours!