The Fear and the Release

And now it begins. The Fear.

Not so long ago there were only upbeat messages and articles and messages about how to cope with being shut up at home. Now, as moving to the next phase of the pandemic looms - the phase in which we are allowed, by degrees, to get back to work and go to many more places - there is talk about whether people will be quite so eager as they thought they would be, to leave the manageable safety of their homes for the world outside. The virus is under control, but it's not vanquished. It's going to linger for months to come. There will be an ongoing risk of infection. With uncomfortable consequences. It may prove to be only a mild illness, but that's not true for everyone. With 28,000 dead, not all of them elderly, coronavirus is clearly a killer if one is susceptible.

What are the odds of coming into close contact with a virus carrier in a shop, on the bus, or at work? For an ordinary person without full personal protection equipment?

At the moment, far from negligible, at least in places where lots of people live or move around in. It's easy to see why there might be a growing concern - a fear - that going back into crowded situations, every day, several times a day, could be dangerous. Even worse if you have no choice about it, some one else telling you that you must come to work.

There can't be many around now who would endure the illness in order to 'get it over with' and gain some immunity, for immunity is not guaranteed. There's no sure payoff. At best, it would be a gamble.

I have no faith in flimsy face masks. They may give a spurious reassurance to others, but they are no protection. I would dread someone with a mask coming too close, believing they can do me no harm.

The best protection for now is the obvious one: keeping away from other people.

For the future - until a vaccine is ready for everyone - I am pinning my hopes on mass testing; and simultaneously, mass-tracking of whoever has the virus, and then isolating them.

I am looking forward to installing that NHS tracking app, which will give me much more reassurance than any face covering. I don't care about the app potentially infringing my 'Civil Liberties'. I want to know whether I might have come too close to someone who has tested positive for the virus, or has self-declared the symptoms. I do see that even if they merely match up phone numbers, the authorities will from that point know who the matched-up phones belong to, and where they live, and can trace the virus donor and donee to their home addresses. And link that information to the cars they drive. And then see where donor and donee go thenceforth, and how often, and whom they meet - all tracked from their phones. I dare say that the police could call on an infected person, if they seemed not to be self-isolating after being warned to do so by the app. 

Scary surveillance? I'm more scared of the virus. If age is a big, big risk factor then I'm at risk, even if not yet technically 'vulnerable'. I want to go out without restrictions, and if this is the price one must pay then I am going to pay it. I would be constantly checking that app, to see whether I am still 'clear'.

And so there will be the Release. Sooner or later it will come.

So let's say that a month from now some of the restrictions have been lifted, and - with that app installed and running - I can get out much more, and go where I please. Will I hit the shops bigtime? Will I haunt tea rooms? Probably not. I'd have to go where I'll encounter lots of people, and then queue with them, at a high personal risk of casual infection. I can easily make do with last year's summer stuff. I can easily survive on a bottle of water and an apple for my afternoon refreshment. Sorry, Fat Face and White Stuff and Seasalt, and the rest of my favourites!

If they let caravan sites reopen, I will however be off like a shot. My form of caravanning is a strictly solitary activity, with social distancing easy to maintain. And, food shopping and filling stations excepted, I can stay away from all places where I might have to stand near somebody else. In preparation for this possibility, I need to get Fiona serviced and MOT'd. So I'm watching the Volvo dealer's website for news of their reopening for business.