18 months into the pandemic

 

So here we are, 18 months into the pandemic. Stuck in this weird place where a great number of the population are double vaccinated, with the vaccine now being offered to teenagers, and with booster shots being given to front line health and social care workers and the most vulnerable in society, and yet we're currently at more than 3,000 cases in Cardiff. So what gives?

6 months ago we would not have believed this was possible. The vaccine was supposed to be the way out of this. So how did this happen? Well, I'm no scientist, but I would hazard a guess that we let down our guard too soon, perhaps we should have waited longer, for more people to have the vaccine. Rather than be seduced by the concept of a summer of freedom. A summer of freedom, and an autumn of relative freedom, may well be to blame for a second lockdown Christmas. 

We gave up too soon. We stopped bothering. Even now, with numbers escalating, with theatre performers pleading with audiences to wear masks, many are still not doing the bare minimum to keep others safe. Can we blame them, when the message since the summer has largely been that this is over? Leaders can say it's not, but actions speak louder than words. Re-opening schools in September with no restrictions, allowing more and more travel abroad, removing social distancing restrictions in hospitality and event venues...all of this very much says that the pandemic is over. 

I say 'we', when actually not all of us have. Many are being cautious. Continuing to work at home, wearing masks, venturing out to test the waters but always aware of the threat, to both ourselves and others. Taking measured risks, always assessing the dangers. 

We're in this weird limbo place, where it feels like it's all over, and yet it's not over at all. It's like being in some kind of pandemic purgatory, waiting to see which way things will go. The vaccine did a lot of the heavy lifting, but we were never supposed to rely on that alone to see us through. We had to be disciplined and patient, cautious and measured, and we weren't. Or some of us weren't. And in the coming months, we will all pay the price for it. A burden which will fall more heavily on the shoulders of those whose lives are forever changed because of this pandemic. 

I really, really, really  don't want to be writing another pandemic blog post in 6 months time to mark 2 years since it started. But I can absolutely see it happening.