Don’t panic

Thoughts from November 2020 on why it was important not to demonise everyone who raised concerns about the potential impact of Covid 19 restrictions

In November 2020 Covid was making a resurgence. I wrote then on another platform about my concerns about what lay ahead, with England about to go into its second lockdown, Scotland ramping up restrictions on face coverings and restrictions on movement and Wales in a “firebreak”.

“So yes, one day it will all be over. But not everyone will make it through and now more than ever it is important to take a moment to look at the world through the eyes of others in a different position to your own.

Politicians had succeeded in persuading the majority of people that more restrictions were the only solution to the crisis. But few seemed to want to talk about what impact those restrictions might have: the disruption to education; the effects on mental health; the devastating impact on pensioners isolated in care homes.

Not everyone would make it, I argued: it was important to consider all the possible consequences, rather than simplistically demonising those who did so.

Yesterday I laid Dad to rest in the family grave in Aberystwyth. He never really recovered from the stroke he suffered a few months after I wrote these words. Shut away in a care home, denied access to proper medical care and, like Mam, persuaded to sign a do not resuscitate letter at the start of the pandemic, he had already been hospitalised earlier in the year.

Mam died in May 2021, horribly dehydrated and hypothermic, allowed to slip into that state while resident in a care home, isolated and neglected.

I wish I had been wrong when I wrote these words. I wish others had considered that they might be too.

1 November 2020

“I mean this in the nicest possible way, but if you are about to post something explaining why you believe anyone with concerns about lockdown is a granny-killing monster, please just pause for a moment.

“Not everyone has a steady and secure job and a guaranteed pension. For some people, lockdown means the loss of their income and no way to pay the mortgage or the unavoidable bills. Not everyone is receiving government financial support.

“Some people have medical concerns beyond Covid-19 that will go untreated or undiagnosed. Some are living out what may be the last few months of life as prisoners in care homes, unable to see the people they love.

“Some people will simply not be able to cope with the renewed isolation.

“It is possible to both understand that this virus is highly infectious and deadly but to also take a different view on the balance of risks and the virtues of one particular course of action.

“If you want an example of that, look no further than schools. They have not been included in this lockdown for now: that is a political decision, based on an assessment of the balance of risk. It is not a decision taken purely on the basis of science of virus transmission; if it was, then schools would be closed.

“So yes, one day it will all be over. But not everyone will make it through and now more than ever it is important to take a moment to look at the world through the eyes of others in a different position to your own.

“That’s all. Do carry on.”