Living with Covid 19 — a Snapshot in Time, or the New Way..?
Depending on what happens with Covid 19, this blog is about either a snapshot in time — and what life is like, or reveals the difference between now and how we used to live. We don’t know. But I read to record how life is, so that people in the future can look back and understand. So, to anyone in the future, which would be now for you…wondering what it was like — at least from my view and some around me — here goes.
Shock. Fear. Escalating cases of this deadly disease and seeing cases rise on a daily basis. Deaths rising and the concern that hospitals would not be able to cope with this pandemic. Not enough protective equipment for hospital staff, putting their lives at risk to help others. Calls for volunteers to help support the NHS. My own brother volunteering to do so and that filling me with anguish. Shortage of toilet rolls and other essential items, as people panic buy for the unknown that is coming. Jokes about how much loo roll you can get through in a lockdown! Shelves empty in supermarkets. That was March and April 2020. I had to stop watching the news at one point, when the deaths were (only) at 750. And each time a new death was reported, the media would say they ‘were elderly’ or ‘had an underlying condition’. It was as if it was OK to die if you were old or lived with an underlying condition.
At the time I write, 46,000 people have died in the UK, because of Covid 19. Devastating for their loved ones and those close to them. And yet weirdly — and others have said the same — I feel less stressed now, despite far more people having died, than when we were down below 1000. It was the shock, the unknown. Now, I think possibly like living during war times or similar difficult times, I, like many others am learning to live with this situation in which we now live.
We have had a couple of months now where the ‘R’ level — the level at which the disease is multiplying — has been below 1 (though it is now rising above that) and during the summer, people have been able to get out and live relatively normally after 6 or so weeks of lockdown. ‘Lockdown’. ‘Social distancing’. Face masks, 2 metre distances, furlough, quarantine. Who ever thought about those before now? ‘Lockdown’, oh lockdown deserves a paragraph of its own methinks!
We watched Italy in lockdown and I thought how awful it would be to be locked in your home, in order to keep the virus at bay. Then on March 24th, we were ourselves to go into lockdown. To only go out for food and vital medicines and not to go to work unless you were a key worker. Anyone working in an office was to work from home. For many, this was a huge change, to start working from home, at home all day. You couldn’t go and see friends or family members. Only once a day could you go out for exercise. The streets were eerily quiet. No cars on the road, as we were told we were not to drive, to limit the number of accidents and impact on the NHS. The air was clear. I think some of us liked that aspect — quiet, clean air, time for nature and to hear the birds sing. Families walked together . Walking on the opposite side of the road when you see someone is now normal. Previous to Covid, you’d have thought, “What’s wrong with me? Why do people keep walking out of the way?”
I remember being shocked to be told I could only walk my greyhound once a day. What a liberty to have removed, to be told how often you can go out. To feel guilty even if you did. Not being able to drive 5 minutes down the road for a change of walk, else you would be breaking the law. For everyone, it was different, the things that impacted them most. What was worst for you in lockdown, if you lived through Covid 19?
Zoom calls. Not many people knew about Zoom and other video calls, but then choirs had Zoom choirs online, families had Zoom meet ups, a friend has been doing a Zoom pub quiz. Waving at friends if you walked past their house. Wiping down the shopping packaging with alcohol-based sprays. Cleaning handles and doors obsessively. Washing your hands with soap or anti-viral gel. We have adapted. I guess it’s what people did during the wars. I started ‘virtual sundowners’ with friends. We still do them actually, as you can both have a drink, you have the video on and no one has to drive. Fab! There is even a socially distant Last Night of the Proms tonight. Normal.
Flights were limited. Over the summer, some people have been travelling, but with the risk of having to ‘quarantine’ for 14 days at home when you get back. Therefore, many have been hitting the beaches during a warm summer in Blighty. And unsurprisingly, as more and more has opened up, pubs, restaurants, even the prime minister encouraging people back into offices (!) and children go back to school, the numbers of cases are rising. And at the point I write, we are now above R1 and we will no doubt have to start changes again, as inevitably the number of deaths will rise as we head into autumn and winter.
But this is not just the UK. What is so amazing is this is a global pandemic. We live in a globalised world, where people used to travel (far too much in my view) and therefore, what happens in one country, quickly spreads to another. Colleagues working from home in Germany, Bulgaria, America. A friend in the tourism industry in South Africa with hardly any work, as tourism has stopped. They had to do lockdown too — and much to the chagrin of a friend I mentioned it to — without wine — quel horreur! The thing that got many of us through over here, as alcohol-free days seemed to dwindle.
Pre-covid we used to kiss people we met on the cheeks. We used to stand close to other people — now I am still taken aback when I watch a TV programme and the people are next to each other. We could give a friend a lift in the car. We met at pubs and didn’t worry who had touched the door or the glass we were drinking from. We never wore masks in shops. We didn’t look in horror if someone near us coughed. We let friends come into our house without worrying where they stood or what they touched.
Equally, we used to rush around. To commute a lot and pollute the environment by doing so. Some of us didn’t spend enough time with the people we cared about. Lockdown and Covid has been tough in many ways, but it has also changed priorities for many people, made people question what they value. Even question their relationships, where they live, what they do. There has been this uncanny alignment between what we need to do to keep Covid at bay and what we need to do to protect the environment — something close to my heart. Covid has brought about less flying, less driving around at least in lockdown — it’s like nature trying to teach us something. But will we listen? It’s not over yet and this new world is bound to be our world for the foreseeable future. We just don’t know if it is the future, or a snapshot in time.
