I WAS stopped in my tracks.

I read the Covid statistics for the past few days and realised my complacency. Over 420 new infections on Monday and the trajectory is only upwards. Or backwards if you like.

Then I watched the most reasonable and fair of experts, Professor Christina Pagel, explaining her worries about a quick release of societal restrictions in England as there is worry that vaccinations are not breaking the link between infections and long Covid, including amongst children, only to be rudely interrupted and told there is no definitive data on long Covid.

She raised her eyebrows and quickly answered “Yes there is. The Office of National Statistics has said only last Friday that there are over a million people living in England living with long Covid... 600,000 say it is impacting their daily lives.”

When I look at the young people who have sacrificed so much over the past 18 months, the thoughts of them getting infected and being stricken with long Covid for the sake of me wearing a mask is beyond distressing.

And I realised my eye has been off the ball. I have been craving human contact and conversation. So, my guard has been down. And it shouldn’t have been. A colleague has had to stop her wonderful work supporting those in need because she has long Covid. I know clinically vulnerable people everywhere. And yet my guard went down. But it is time to get focused again. 

STORMONT SCEPTICS

Thankfully we have devolution so we won’t have herd immunity strategies in the time to come. Many of us Stormont sceptics are and have been glad Westminster is not making our Covid rules, especially this week. 

Long Covid is an awful disability. So many are stricken with the added worry that there is no certainty regarding the future. So many, including children, teenagers and young adults, have had their life blood sapped away from them. With no known cure. For the sake of wearing a mask and keeping a bit of space. It is unconscionable to just let the virus rip and cause this type of illness.

We know so much more now. We know it is carried in droplets of air. So, masks are really more important than we had ever realised, to protect ourselves and others. Is it so terrible to keep wearing them and asking that they are worn, particularly in confined spaces? A bit tedious certainly, but no, hardly too much.

When I look at the young people who have sacrificed so much over the past 18 months, the thoughts of them getting infected and being stricken with long Covid for the sake of me wearing a mask is beyond distressing.

CIRCULAR LOGIC

I know this is all circular because this feels so like last September when we saw the cases rising and the thoughts of locking down were too much. I don’t think we will see lockdowns unless this Delta variant starts to overwhelm the hospitals, but do we want to run the risk of watching intensive care beds fill up, instead of just taking care?

The only way to stop us going further backwards is to be careful now.

We all know Boris Johnson’s government are clowns. Their way of thinking is no example to any of us. Of course it is popular to, say, fill the stadiums, throw the masks away – freedom has come. But that will never mean we should take his advice and run away from the award-winning, science-focused Christine Pagel, who very reasonably and calmly tells us to cop on and examine the evidence.