By Roger Watson
The COVID comedy show continues
As I write, a great contagion continues to spread across the land, killing up to 10 people daily. We thought that the contagion was under control, but it seems, like the nuclear cloud in On the Beach by Neville Shute, that nothing will stop it. We have locked down the economy, restricted people to their homes and made them wear masks, but the contagion—according to reliable reports on the BBC—continues to spread. Even with millions vaccinated, the contagion creeps across England. We are unsure how Scotland and Wales are faring. Nobody can make a word of sense of the ramblings of the deranged Welsh leader and the ongoing civil war in Scotland appears to have displaced the rest of the news from north of the border. Rumours abound that we will be free to roam soon and meet people in unrestricted numbers. But nobody knows if this is going to be permanent or if it is simply a final throw of the dice, allowing the contagion to ‘rip’ before we lockdown the country forever with the resounding warning in our ears: ‘we told you so’.
The absurdities of our present situation in the UK are abundant. The lack of logic in almost all the advice we are given with its inherent contradictions and lack of firm evidence cannot have evaded the great minds who sit in Downing Street and the Department of Health and Social Security. Yet the nonsense continues to pour forth. I was speaking to a police officer a few days ago who admitted he was not sure what the latest guidance was regarding families and friends gathering. A friend who is a teacher recounts the strict measures taken withing the school to avoid mixing of classes, the one-way system in place and the social distancing. Then she tells us that the students arrive and leave on the same bus – completely mixed and not socially distanced.
Risible and ridiculous slogans abound such as ‘Hands, face space’, ‘Stop the virus, save the NHS’ and the truly comical ‘Act like you’ve got it’ which I am still seeing on the sides of buses. What springs to my mind of ‘acting like I had it’ is to start wheezing and insist on being admitted to ICU. That is a rather cruel joke, I know, given the people to whom this has happened. But the only way to counter illogical nonsense is to retaliate with logic. It is precisely by ‘acting like we all had it’ that has cowed most of the population into truly believing that death stalks them daily and the Grim Reaper awaits round the next corner.
For those who have assimilated this message and succumbed to the fear it is not very good news. The Grim Reaper is, indeed, round every corner but he (or she in these enlightened times; who can tell under that cloak?) is more likely to appear in the shape of a passing car, a set of slippery steps or just a good old-fashioned heart attack than the coronavirus. People’s proper assessment of danger, not good at the best of times, has truly deserted them in the wake of the pandemic. I regularly see cyclists wearing a face mask, but no helmet and I even saw one woman cycling, smoking and wearing a face mask with no helmet. If I were truly at a loss for words, I would not be writing this. However, I am completely at a loss for an explanation.
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