The leaves on the pavement did not seem so crisp this morning. I was dropping the kids off to school, my daughter’s hand in mine and the two boys following closely behind, and my mind kept drifting to a comment made by one of my patients when we were discussing this, the second national lockdown on account of the Covid-19 pandemic: “It’s not as if we are at war”.
At the time I had agreed politely with the sentiment, but on reflection, there has been a war-like feel to the time of coronavirus.
Our vocabulary has reflected this. How often have we seen the words “heroes”, “frontline”, “fight”, or heard phrases such as “the battle against Covid”?
The comparison can be drawn out ad nauseam, but one of the key differences, or difficulties, it faces, is people’s attitude towards “the enemy” and the threat it poses.
My grandmother, now 94 years old, was a Wren in the Second World War and my late grandfather a paratrooper.
I have a recording, made as part of my secondary school history project, of them recalling a rare evening they had spent together during the war.
They had sat down for a romantic meal, and were just coming to the pudding of some freshly picked strawberries when the air-raid sirens sounded.
In no time at all the bombs started dropping, and they took refuge under the table as the house shook around them from the force of the blasts. They survived unscathed, but the strawberries were ruined.
The very real threat from the novel Coronavirus is a much more difficult ‘sell’ for those in power.
One of the main reasons for this, in my opinion, lies not only in the nature of the threat, but also in the delay between any action taken to combat the virus, and the outcome of that action to be seen.
It is the difference between an Air Raid Precaution (ARP) Warden saying “Put that light out and you won’t get bombed tonight” and being told to “stay at home and in four weeks you will start to see the R number dropping”.
Not only that, but in those four weeks, we will initially see the case numbers rising, hospital admissions rising, deaths rising. This is on account of the fact that it takes that time for those people who have already caught the virus to show symptoms, become unwell, and then require hospital admission – hence the term ‘baked-in’ being used, The damage has already been done, and in the absence of a cure or a vaccine, nothing can be done to alter that.
This delay between action and reaction leaves the door open to sceptics, conspiracy theorists, and political gamesmen amongst others to cast doubt and spread discontent amongst a fatigued population facing an extremely difficult winter.
This is why it is so critical that we have strong and consistent leadership from our government. We need to believe the messages we are hearing. In short, we need to have faith that our actions will save lives.
I would therefore call upon those in power to provide a united, cross-party approach to the crisis. Lead us, please, with honesty, integrity and candour in the face of our invisible enemy.
We will only really know how well, or badly, this crisis has been managed when we look back ten, twenty or even fifty years down the line. Let us hope that we will look back with pride. For now, we must stick together.
These were the thoughts that accompanied me on the school run this morning, and as I dropped the children off, I held my daughter’s hand a little tighter, I hugged them all a little longer, and missed them sooner and more keenly than ever.
