So, we had our first suspected case of Covid-19 at work over the weekend, one of the people in my company has self-isolated and is likely to have the virus (caught from flat-mate) Consequently I took the decision to switch everyone to "WFH" (work from home) mode from today and shut the office down completely. Luckily as a technology/software firm that's not too much of a drama for us although, without face to face meetings, selling the stuff we make to people might be a tad more challenging, we'll have to get innovative there I think, need to think of some opportunistic angles to exploit the bell-curve.
Anyway, according to my habit, I decided to have a little wander at lunchtime so I braved a walk into town and a visit to our local Waitrose supermarket. Oh my, what a disaster! Hundreds of people milling around (most looking well over 70!) huge queues at checkouts (none of them could work the self-checkouts properly) nothing (useful) on the selves and frankly a terrified look in most people's eyes. The shoppers were mostly blokes who were wandering around aimlessly with their phones cemented to their ears, presumably talking to their wives, since they were saying things like should I buy X or Y, clearly having no clue about grocery shopping. Boots was no better, empty shelves and empty looking people, I even noticed a bunch of rough looking geezers (clearly half-cut) trying to get into a pub that was shut, seriously, if this is the "Dunkirk" spirit then I don't rate our chances much!
Now I'm a pretty laid-back person and I must say that I'm not massively worried about catching this virus (clearly I'd rather not!), the genes in my family are pretty tough, my Sister in London has recovered from it already, she says it's a rough 4-5 days but manageable, like bad cold/flu, anyway, we're all fit and healthy with no underlying issues so the statistics are in our favour. Clearly, we just need to make sure that if symptoms appear that we don't pass it onto more vulnerable people etc. But, even I was surprised today, we're not even in the thick of it yet but judging by some the carnage I witnessed (and the volume of vehicles with sirens blaring racing through the town) I'd be seriously worried that quite a few people are going to find this really difficult.
I foolishly thought that I'd just nip out to buy some bread and I also needed a block of marzipan to make a cake for my Daughters birthday next week, but alas, both were completely sold-out (why marzipan??) Anyway, thinking laterally I got flour and yeast (to make my own bread) and found plenty of marzipan in a little local shop on the way home from town, strangely this was the only place I saw any cold-remedies (Lemsip etc.) also; seems like people are stockpiling drugs as well as marzipan, the best strategy seems to be shop local and avoid the supermarkets.
Holy crap, what a mess. What with congregations of more than a few people banned, faith healing conventions cancelled and churches/mosques/synagogues shut, I could launch into a commentary about the complete absence of any useful deistic intervention at this point, but TBH that seems too bleeding obvious to be worthwhile. Rather, this crisis makes me think more about what our ancient ancestors would have thought faced with similar pandemics in the middle ages, before the enlightenment, the mass panic and fear must have been unimaginably horrific. All at a time when they didn't even know where diseases came from, how to cure them or even how to avoid catching them. It's no wonder they invented things like religions and rituals to persist some level of hope in society. A case of "ignorance is bliss" I suppose, nothing like plenty of unwitting vectors innocently gathering together, speeding transmission, death, recovery and eventually herd immunity, the circle of life, the only agency required being nature, nature red in tooth and claw.
No comments:
Post a Comment