I have previously asked in these pages what is wrong with people who continue to wear a face mask in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But still, they wear them. And the more expensive or chattering class patronised the venue, the greater the mask wearing. My local pub and our nearby Aldi are virtually mask free zones. But at Waitrose I reckon 90% of customers—a higher percentage than the staff, incidentally—remain muzzled and at a recent visit to the theatre my wife and I were virtually the only unmasked people in the audience.
As the government debate extending (NB: not abolishing) the Coronavirus Act 2020 with not the slightest chance that it will be taken off the statute books, and given the UK Government sponsored cover up of the UK Government’s cover up of the management of the pandemic I would be pleasantly astonished if further restrictions are not introduced towards the end of the year. If Covid-19 fades then they always have the cold—tipped to kill a further 60,000 of us—or the predicted influenza outbreak, the so-called ‘twindemic’ as an excuse.
The media refers to how Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted and some refer to the ‘massive gamble’ that this was. But, depending on where you go, you could get the impression that the pandemic is indeed over or, alternately, still at its height. For those testing negatively for Covid-19 the need to remain locked down is no longer a requirement. There are currently no legal requirements to wear masks or to maintain social distancing. But the government hardly needs legislation to enforce mask wearing and social distancing. We are gladly doing it to ourselves. Freedom Day was always going to be a disappointment to many who have become addicted to masks and smearing themselves with alcoholic hand gel.
I am a park runner, one of the many sad people who start their Saturday mornings with an organised 5 kilometre run. I am a huge fan of the parkrun movement which, since it started in 2004 has spread across the world and involves millions of people every week. The concept is simple and transferable; you register for a barcode and take that along to each run. It is matched to a bar code at the run which is handed to you at the finish. The codes are scanned and matched, and your time is recorded and registered on the parkrun website. It works anywhere and I have tested it in the United States several times and in Singapore. And since you ask, my most recent time, aged 66 years was 25:59 – those single seconds are important.
Of course, parkrun was suspended during the pandemic panic, and it took a very long time to have it reinstated. Indoor gyms were functioning months before parkrun re-started. It is ironic that the fitter you are the less likely you are to succumb to Covid-19 and the best place to be is outdoors with no evidence that I know of to suggest that the virus does spread out of doors. So, I was delighted when parkrun started again and was down there at the first opportunity. But what I found was a formerly friendly bunch of volunteers who make the announcements at the start, usually injected with some humour and a list of recent achievements by runners present replaced by a person with the microphone addressing us as if we were at a rally of the Hitler Youth. Without a word of encouragement or ‘enjoy yourselves’ but a ‘be quiet and listen’ we got a list of don’ts with the claim that they are obliged to follow the ‘Coronavirus Framework’. It transpires that this ‘framework’ has simply been made up and posted on the parkrun website. It contains no reference to current government guidelines. The information contained on the website is inaccurate as in: “…the SARS-CoV-2 virus can be transmitted by the direct contact route…” and completely unnecessary information about fomites as in: “Examples of potential fomites in a parkrun context are stopwatches, scanners, laptops, and finish tokens.” This is despite the fact that they include a link to the CDC guidance to the contrary.
The race is organised such that people are told to start at the marker giving their predicted time, to minimise overtaking, and then we are requested to ‘use all available’ space while we are running. Social distancing must be maintained in the funnel (the place you go after the race, in order of finishing, to ensure that your time is matched to your position) and while we are there, there is to be “no spitting or high fiving”. I laughed out loud the first time I heard that. Nobody else did. The thought that park runners, mainly hailing from the middle and professional classes (OK- people like me!) would spit is laughable. And high-fiving? Surely folk can make their own minds up about the risk involved. But the threat exists that ‘persistent offenders’ will have their times erased from the race. Big scary wow! I asked in the title when all this was going to end. I genuinely fear it never will.
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