The Corona Diaries #1

I never got round to writing an ‘end of year reflection, look to the future’ post for this year. Life was too busy, too depressing and I knew that 2020 would be a year different to others. I just had no motivation to write that post though I know that they’re good to write as I always realise I’ve done more than I thought and I enjoy reading back over them. I thought I might still write one but it would end up being a couple of months into the year instead of right at the beginning.

Well, I said I knew 2020 was going to be a different kind of year, but I had no idea it was going to be different in the way it’s turned out.

Turns out it’s a different kind of year for everyone.

I had so many things filling my head before Christmas and into the new year that although I’d heard about this Coronavirus thing and was aware it had the potential to affect a lot of people’s travel plans, it really was just something flickering in the back of my mind and I was paying no real attention to it.

It got more serious, but I still didn’t think it would affect us so badly. Not because I think we’re some kind of invincible race, but because I assumed we’d learn from China and Italy and put things in place to stop it widely spreading here. Yeah right. You can tell how befuddled my brain was if I was putting my faith in country with a large population who voted for Brexit and several years down the line still thought Brexit was such a good idea they voted Boris Johnson in as Prime Minister.

I’m not sure when it really hit me that this was going to be as big an issue here as in those countries that had already been seriously affected, but for the record, let me state I was well ahead of the PM on it.

Was it when France imposed strict isolation regulations? Was it when countries started to close their borders? Or was it when toilet paper started disappearing from the supermarket shelves?

I was in London for a meeting at the beginning of March and before driving home popped into Waitrose to get myself some treats and a free coffee (I don’t have Waitrose where I live so it’s always a treat when I get to go to one and buy things I can’t usually get hold of). I noticed that the whole aisle where the toilet paper and kitchen rolls usually live was empty. How strange I thought. Then listening to LBC on the drive back up to Manchester the discussion all seemed to be about how toilet roll aisles across London were bare as people bulk bought and hoarded the products they thought they’d most need in the case of a lockdown.

On the Monday I checked in my local supermarket but they still had plenty of toilet paper.

‘Soft southerners’, I thought, ‘we hardy northerners aren’t panicking over 3-ply. We know if push comes to shove we can just use newspaper like in the old days’.

Apparently I was wrong about that too; by the weekend our toilet roll aisles were just as empty as those down south.

Over the next week panic buying of just about everything started to prevail. The government and media were constantly asking people to stop and trying to reassure everyone that there would be no shortages as supply chains would be maintained and the only reason shelves were empty was because the first people to get there bought everything on them.

Of course most people paid no attention and the shelves remained bare.

I think both the government and the press have underestimated how little trust the public (yes, even those who voted for Boris Johnson) have in our government. And because many people regurgitate the fake news they read because it suits their worldview, they’ve mistakenly concluded that people actually believe what they read in the papers and so are puzzled when they don’t believe it now.

Adding to that is the worry people have about having to isolate for up to 14 days (and up to 4 months according to some rumours) so even if people do believe that the supply chains are fine, they still want to stock up in case they can’t get to the shops for a prolonged period of time.

As other countries have gone into serious lockdown it started to become inevitable that the same would happen here. It wasn’t an ‘if’ anymore, but rather a ‘when’, with many questioning why it hadn’t already happened.

I’m a teacher, though this year I’m not in the classroom at all as I’ve been kind of seconded to my union. I say ‘kind of’ because it’s not really a secondment but that’s the easiest way to explain it without getting myself bogged down. As schools have started to prepare for closure I’ve been fielding calls and emails left, right and centre as no-one knows exactly what ‘closure’ will look like.

The government instructed people to work from home where possible and the numbers allowed in gatherings was reduced. On Tuesday I had my first conference call meeting. This was a monthly meeting where the different unions and representatives from different departments in the local authority meet to discuss relevant issues. We usually sit round a big table together. It was strange to be on a phone call with lots of people at the same time, but after a few minutes getting used to who speaks when, it was absolutely fine. Of course the planned agenda was pushed aside and the whole meeting was given over to discussing Corona. By the end of the week I was getting quite adept at conference calls and video conferencing.

By midweek, many schools were only opening to particular year groups as staffing levels were dropping by 20-30% as staff were staying home either because they were ill, in a vulnerable category or living with someone in a vulnerable category. Head teachers weren’t allowed to close schools due to Corona (that decision had to come from the government) but they could cite safeguarding issues and close or partially close if staffing numbers dropped below a safe number.

On Wednesday evening it was announced that schools would be closing their doors on Friday. Except they’re not. They’re still open to the children of essential workers who don’t have any other childcare and to those children considered vulnerable. No-one has any idea of how many children to expect in school on Monday which has made it awkward to arrange staffing. Although some schools have done brilliantly in the circumstances some have demanded that all staff are in on Monday. Yeah, not really getting this whole isolation/social distancing at all.

Pubs, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres were ordered to close on Friday night. People have been asked repeatedly not to go to pubs and so on but so many people have carried on behaving as normal the government has had to take the steps needed to force them to close. Even after the instruction had been issued which must tell you how serious this is – this is a Tory government, they will not shut up businesses lightly which is probably why it’s taken them so long in the first place – people were still flocking to them on Friday evening. They seemed to see it as a last night of freedom and reacted with a ‘let’s go out with all our mates and get bladdered even if I wasn’t planning to go out‘, rather than a ‘shit, this is serious now, better stay in and start isolating‘ attitude.

It got worse over the weekend as people flocked to city parks and inundated national parks and country villages. Yeah, the message about social distancing still hadn’t got through, with some people even seeming to think they were being clever by finding ways to flout isolation and still be socialising in groups.

I’ve taken all this flouting rather personally. The longer people flout the longer it’s going to be before this is all over. As I can’t see my dad whilst it’s going on – we celebrated his 91st birthday a day early last Sunday, which was lucky because the following day his care home went into lockdown – and as his care situation is rather precarious anyway, this is something I’m finding really hard.

Add to that, I don’t trust our government and so don’t want to give them more powers – some of which I worry they’ll conveniently ‘forget’ to revoke when it’s all over – and I really can’t believe people have behaved in a way that has given them no alternative.

I went to the supermarket yesterday and it seemed a lot quieter than usual for a Saturday afternoon. The store was quite well-stocked and I was able to buy everything I needed though I could see they were out of some things like toilet rolls and pasta. Now that people know the lockdown is for real and we’re no longer in this kind of limbo maybe they’ve calmed down a bit and stopped with the panic buying.

Or it could just have been because they were all in the park.

How do you feel about the lockdown? What issues do you think you’ll face? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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