It’s here

Posted on November 17, 2021November 17, 2021 by David Hopkins

Try as we might, we’ve not been able to avoid the Covid thing any longer.

Despite all our best efforts for the last 19-or-so months with distancing, wearing of masks, vaccinations, jabs, boosters, etc, as well as staying away from family and friends, not going to the cinema, restaurants, large gatherings, etc, it seemed it’s our turn for Covid to find us.

Predictably it found us through my kids and their school. My eldest (12yo) has continued to wear masks at school, and he’s the only one in his classes since they returned after the summer. He’s been strong and determined, has suffered the snide comments from his peers and mixed messages from the teachers (some relaxed about him wearing the masks, some actively saying he’s not allowed to wear them) but he was the first at the weekend to have some symptoms. His PCR result came back last night as positive.

The rest of us took a lateral flow test this morning when my youngest had a positive result. We’ve now all done a PCR test, and we wait for the results.

Thankfully my 12yo seems to be over the worst of it, it’s just been a heavy cold for him. But for others I’ve heard and read about, it has been far, far worse. And you don’t know how hard it’ll hit you or your loved ones until you’ve got it. At the moment the anxiety of the next few weeks is worse than maybe the actual infection … time will tell.

I knew this time would come, but no one seems to be bothered – schools still won’t insist on testing and masks, socialising is happening as though Covid never happened, large events continue, again with no or few masks being worn and no instructions for double-jabbed or masks as essential criteria for entry … ? We’ve reported todays’ results to everyone who needs to know about it, but it’s all just so very mundane and somehow ‘expected’ – any interest is purely about the recording of the result, but only because it has to be recorded, not the there’s a possibility of further infection or with who they’ve been in contact with at school, etc.

We may have to learn to live with Covid, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still be doing things to cover and protect the vulnerable, the NHS, our parents or our children, etc. The ‘new normal’ seems to be more about protecting our ‘right’ to complain about and actually going on holiday than anything else.

This is not over, not by a long way.