
One of those great covers Private Eye routinely produces. Buy the magazine as I do; it may be the best read in British publishing
My heartfelt thanks to Bill Taylor and Richard Pretorius for their superb contributions from Toronto and Madrid to this series on life under Covid-19. Here's my own first offering as a reluctant Londoner ...
Just over three weeks ago, I thought we might be sleepwalking into an unnecessary economic crisis.
I posted this sarcastic message at Facebook: "This is the moment to put aside partisan thoughts. In these dark times, let’s salute the Government’s valiant efforts to call an emergency Cobra meeting and then hold it only three days later. Let’s also salute the courage of 66m UK inhabitants who are going about their daily lives as if nothing much had happened. And may we also wish speedy recoveries to the 40 who’ve got Coronavirus?"
It can now be seen as utterly crass. Mitigating features? Plenty of highly intelligent people, including doctors known to me, at that stage shared my cynical outlook, arguing that ordinary decent winter flu was by far a greater threat, and one that never went away. The Government's own dallying over the timing of that "emergency" suggests similar thoughts had crossed ministerial minds.
We now know the crisis was not imagined and that, while many still seem to see no need to change their everyday lives, coronavirus is every bit as real a menace as suggested by one friend, Michael Smith, in his reply to my Facebook post back on March 2: "I tend to agree but I am assured by my neighbours, both senior NHS personnel, that it really is much more serious than it seems."
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