Disclaimer: The views expressed within this article are entirely the author’s own and are not attributable to Wessex Scene as a whole.
Since non-essential shops were allowed to re-open on 15th June, the restrictions to daily life imposed during the height of the Corona virus pandemic have been lifting rapidly. Since the pubs and restaurants reopened on 4th July, and gyms are to follow, it seems like we’ll soon be able to do pretty much everything we could pre-pandemic.
While lockdown did feel like a horribly semi-apocalyptic transformation in society, it was also reassuring. As someone whose mum is at high risk if she contracts Corona, it made me feel a whole load safer when I was walking down deserted streets and everyone was avoiding each other like the plague (quite literally).
I’m fully aware that the economy has been floundering with so many businesses forced to stay shut, but it seems silly to me to open so many non-essential businesses in such quick succession without monitoring the effects on the infection rate, because being thrown into a second wave would surely be even more disastrous for the country’s finances. I’ve thought from the very beginning that the government’s priorities have been way off when it comes to protecting the country against Covid, and I had hoped that Boris’ brush with death would knock some sense into him to proceed with trepidation, but obviously not.
I’m spending lockdown in London and social distancing has gone completely out the window here. Greens, parks and river banks are constantly packed with huge parties of 20+ people eating crisps or sipping beer together like germs aren’t even a thing. It baffles me how everyone can go from being so cautious to almost forgetting Covid-19 ever existed within a few short weeks. And don’t even get me started on the jam-packed beaches. That’s just obviously a disaster waiting to happen.
Probably the thing that angers me most is that a large proportion of people behaving irresponsibly are my age. I see loads of my peers having massive outdoor gatherings and even house parties on Insta and Snapchat almost daily, and even though I wish I could join them, it makes my blood boil.
I feel super jealous when I see friends hugging and having sleepovers, but I just can’t understand how people can feel comfortable doing those things when people are still dying. This pandemic is far from over.
My reality is that my mum has basically no immune system right now because of treatment she’s receiving, and seeing everyone so close together passing germs around like it’s nothing makes me anxious to even go to the supermarket for fear of picking up the virus from a careless passer-by and then infecting her. I feel even more scared to go out now than I did during the virus’ peak.
The harsh truth is that we don’t deserve the liberty of going back to normal life until we work together to get the UK’s cases to 0 by staying apart. It just seems that no one in the country is willing to accept that.
