Back
in early April 2020 I started writing about how lock-down was unfolding
and the impact of the virus on life – there was some optimism then
about what we could become as a result of a shared experience and threat
that although we lived it differently, there was nationwide awareness.
We shared the rise and fall of the daily graphs, the same fear of the
new threat and the limitations to daily life… as well as the sweet smell
of the freshly de-polluted air and sound of birds on newly acquired
megaphones.
I called the piece ‘
Wiped Clean’ but sadly as I
return to consider finishing it, I think the first edit might be to the
title:
‘Opportunism in a Time of Crisis’
What’s changed from
the earlier days when there was a sense that we were all in this
together and would somehow dance, Zoom, sing, eat, care, clap and find
our way through to maybe build back better when it was over...
Apps & Things
Well first there’s the obvious profiteering by the select few, as our
reckless government hands out contracts to charlatans and snake oil
salesmen to create tests that fail, apps that can’t add anything of
worth, advisors who are beyond comprehension as human beings and treat
our dead relatives as collateral damage in a time of economic priority.
Dailies, Delays & Miscounts
Then there’s the ever-more mythical daily figures that do or don’t
include deaths outside hospital, inside care homes, in our homes and do
or don’t include those with or without but maybe suspected, coronavirus.
And how many tests have been done or are they ‘in the post’ and were
they done all on one person or each person or were the nasal and throat
swabs counted as one or two?
The ‘other’ Science And of course the absurd yet telling necessity for a group of wise scientists (
Independent SAGE)
to set up opposite an official government group (SAGE) because it’s the
only bloody hope for some unbiased, non-politicised facts.
The Face of It
Not forgetting the mockery of our caution by egotistical ‘leaders’ who
disregard the rules they set and refuse to ‘look silly’ in masks -
contrasted against the exhaustion on the mask-scarred faces of NHS
staff. And the dread on the faces of teachers asked, to keep the little
ones apart in a classroom usually packed like a sardine can… cause
‘austerity’. Forcing risks to be burdened by teachers, children and
their families… because the health of humans just doesn’t matter to
government/industry/capitalism - when an economy is sick.
Maybe
it’s that a cousin who’s a dear friend is gasping to breathe in a
hospital that can’t cope. Maybe it’s the death of those I know. Maybe
it’s because when my cousin was in ICU he was terrified but attended to
and now he’s on a ward, there isn’t the staff to cope in this hospital
at the heart of a community hard hit by COVID… but I can’t find my
positive right now. We get twice daily updates and his wife gets some
video calls but it’s all awful as it is for any. My cousin is a
paramedic. His wife and daughter are also paramedics – they had COVID
too but healed at home… although I ‘say’ all three had COVID, yet NONE
of them have tested positive. Back to those dodgy-Del-Boy-Tests I
suppose. (My cousin is even on a test drug FOR dealing with COVID - but
still not positively confirmed - how crazy is that?)
I know when
the deaths of frontline workers started to be seen and talked about,
that the dark started to come. The realisation that this government with
all its faults – really wasn’t going to pull itself together for the
one thing that might have been a chance of redemption in some way. A
chance to work across party politics and say:
“NOTHING is too good for those working to keep us going – get PPE and get the good stuff”
Instead, in their bin-bag aprons and inadequate fast-food-take-away
wear… the carers and healers soldiered on; like a war where only one
side has guns. Government claims of “millions of pieces of PPE” etc was
just a playful word-play and they’d counted everything from cleaning
products to single gloves as a ‘piece’ and all that “ready for a rainy
day” supply – well that had apparently stopped existing about a decade
ago when the government didn’t feel it needed; for a pandemic predicted
to come… they just hoped it would hit someone else’s electoral term.
What now?
Those graphs of little-regard, they show some signs the virus is not as
bad as it was (at its worst) so the government is dashing into the next
bit where they give the kiss-of-life to the economy – using our lips:
lock-down is being eased along with furlough payments for the those in
jobs where they ‘can’ work:
ie: places government has decided can take the risk
ie: pubs, schools, hairdressers, shops (low pay staff).
Places are opening up, cars and planes are re-fuelling the air and
children’s school uniforms are on sale at the front of the local store
again.
Economically though (which is why they want the kids at
school – so the workers can work) it’s been a hit in different ways for
the well-connected; with bailouts to companies so big, they should have
had contingency for an emergency just like this. Meanwhile there is no
sign of hope for ongoing support for those now more in fear of hunger
and unpaid bills, than the virus itself.
IF we mattered at all
(WE the people) – this government would have created something of an
‘extra economy’ (like the bank bailout) to bailout the people with a
clear economic support package to see us through till we are in a better
position to cope… but they won’t.
IF justice mattered and was
really ‘blind’ - then this government, its key advisors and complicit
members – would be in court for gross negligence or criminal
manslaughter or something along those lines for the clear and certain
responsibility for too-numerous-to-contemplate deaths and suffering –
particularly those of healthcare workers forced to face risks they never
signed up to – they are not soldiers, they are CARERS.
I’ve got no real ‘happy’ to end with and after reading the original piece – have discarded all but the last bit:
[This strange time we are currently in, will end and something else
will be in its place and as much as we need our scientists and experts
to help us through, we also need bravery and imagination and
believers-in-better (definition of an activist?) because alongside the
essential physical concerns we’re all experiencing right now, our whole
idea of society is currently pushed up into our faces and it’s going to
take creativity to move us on. I’ll give the last word to
Frankie Boyle:
“The whole crisis does raise some interesting questions though: if we
all agree that we can’t have the weakest people in society dying as a
healthcare system, then why do we tolerate it as an economic system? We
see articles about people who have stockpiled hand sanitiser to sell at a
markup, but they are the people the system we live in supports, and
that is what speculation is.”]
