Finally, after months of never ending gloom, a nation rejoices as it is announced that several vaccines have been found to be 95%+ effective. For the first time since March it’s possible to see the light at the end of the tunnel – according to infamous snakey twat Matt Hancock, who also doubles as Health Secretary, the entire population could hopefully be vaccinated within six months, meaning it’s not now unreasonable to hope that things could be back to normal by summer. God, I can see myself now, enjoying an ice cold pint of dark fruits and a B&H superking as I bask in the sun on the field behind The Cabbage, surrounded by seven or more of my friends, none of whom are wearing masks. It seems almost sinful to imagine it.
Personally, the second lockdown has been absolutely fantastic for me – I’ve got a month (or possibly longer) off work on full pay, giving me time to read, write, cook, exercise, watch sports and just relax. In the first few weeks of lockdown I’ve been on several bike rides, gone on some lovely walks, done some reading, played the new Call of Duty and watched the Indian Premier League, The Masters and a fair bit of horse racing. Turns out that I do actually like sport, I just find football unbelievably boring and prefer the more cultured sports. I’ve lost a bit more weight, finished an absolutely fantastic book (Norweigian Wood by Haruki Murakami, give it a read), written a bit more of my own book, found some new music artists I like, cleaned and rearranged my room and made £170 profit backing Joe Biden to be the next President. From a selfish perspective, which is pretty much the only perspective I ever look at things from, lockdown is a very nice silver lining to the cloud of COVID.
I understand, however, that this hasn’t been the case for everyone, and even someone as fundamentally self-centred as I can recognise the grimness of this situation. Although the end of March was arguably the most terrifying period of time any of us will ever live through, there was a reassuring simplicity to the original national lockdown – stay in your homes for the next few months, don’t see anyone or go anywhere, and everything should eventually be ok. We came together as families, friends, communities and a country to help each other through, from organising shopping deliveries to convening zoom quizzes and facetiming grandparents, confident that the virus could be halted in its tracks if we stayed at home and did as we were told. There were endless stories of how, maybe after the lockdown was over, we’d have finally learned not to take life for granted and to look after ourselves more, as well as the people around us and the environment we inhabit.
Almost inevitably, although no less depressingly, it wasn’t long before it all came crashing down. Desperate to return to some sense of normalcy, the Government reopened the economy too soon, encouraging workers back into their offices, diners back into restaurants and students back to schools/universities, with predictably dire results for the infection rate. People soon forgot about the new respect they’d found for supermarket & retail workers during the original lockdown as they began to ignorantly assert their rights to avoid wearing masks and opt out of track & trace, despite it being made abundantly clear that this was the best way to help suppress the virus. Whilst it’s understandable that the balancing act between avoiding the spread of coronavirus and ensuring that the economy doesn’t collapse is indeed a fine one, the Government has undeniably failed on all accounts, whilst the individualism that has become so ingrained into our society has led to many of our fellow citizens asserting their individual rights over the needs of public health as a whole. This has left the rest of us, the sensible ones so to speak, with an uncomfortable feeling of fear mixed with despair.
It seems, therefore, that news of a successful vaccine has come just at the right time. It has been widely assumed ever since the Government announced the second lockdown that the deadline of 2nd December would be extended and something I’ve seen aptly described as ‘corona fatigue’ has begun to set in. People are tired of it; the uncertainty, the isolation, the financial, physical and emotional toll this virus has taken on all of us. The vaccine doesn’t solve every problem and we still have several grim months ahead of us, but the promise of a return to normality will hopefully inspire people to continue social distancing and mask wearing for just a while longer, whilst also providing the Government with the room to manoeuvre in terms of doing what it has to in order to prevent as many deaths as possible, such as extending lockdown or introducing stricter tiers.
Regardless, for the next few weeks I will be looking forward to all the things I’ll be able to do once this nightmare is over; a day out at the races, a holiday abroad, a night out that doesn’t have to end at 10pm, meeting more than five of my friends at a time etc. The list is almost endless – I can’t wait to watch my friends destroy any remaining shred of dignity they have left on the nightclub dancefloor, or watch the horse I’ve backed come romping home in 7th place, or wander round yet another European city with my camera thinking I’m David Bailey, or go out for dinner and watch in amazement at the sheer quantity of food Tom Brooks consumes. Quite simply, the debauchery and splendour that you’re all used to from yours truly will return and, when it comes down to it, does anything else matter?
Some other stuff probably matters, for the record, but I’m too excited to care. Stay safe.
