Coronavirus

Hi,

Well.....the world as we know is has changed since I last wrote on here!  It is surreal, and I suspect we are just on the cusp of the craziness.

So, this virus - the Coronavirus - started in china and they kept quiet about it at first - even arresting the Dr who tried to bring it to the attention of people (he later died of the virus and eventually china apologised to him posthumously).  China must have realised that they could not contain it and so the rest of the world was informed - but there was no sense of panic or urgency, not in the general population anyway! I'm sure some experts were crapping themselves!  Saying that, I do remember Andy saying to me - this is big...this is going to be big, and he was taking it seriously and he made me wonder...we had a discussion about it and I asked Paul if he was worried and he said no.  At that time, I took it more seriously than Paul, but probably not as much as Andy.  I didn't really think too much of it.  Then China started getting lots of cases, with ppl dying, and other parts of the world started to get get cases - then BOOM. The world went mad.

As Andy had thought it was going to be bad, we had kept a close eye on it and watched everything we could find about it - and it brought us to tears at times.  I felt the fear - the real fear at what this was going to do to the world - both health wise - and to the economy.  We spent quite a lot of time panicking about Andy losing his job and us losing the house, and thinking that we could lose our parents who are most at risk.  The realisation that hospitals would never cope - many of these things sank in with me quite slowly - I would suddenly say - oh God...this or that will happen - and Andy would say - that's what I have been trying to tell you!!  I suddenly realised the extent of the situation and then started to try and make other people understand - like my parents! Wow, that was frustrating! My Dad posted on facebook, that he was self isolating at the Trafford centre because the place was empty!  I commented - something along the lines - Its a good job you are not old and in the "at risk" group then! Which is exactly what they are - especially my Dad who is 79.  The next day they called me from a cafe - and I properly told them off - which i think they found amusing.  So - I tried to explain, and then got my sisters Helen and Joanne to help me get through to them - and now they are self isolating.  I think that they understood around the same time as the rest of the Country really started to understand, as this was about the same time as our Government started to take extremely drastic, unprecedented action.

From last night, all pubs, restaurants. cinemas etc. were all told to close.  The Government are really trying to ram the point home that we really need to stop it spreading and quickly.  I hope we don't have too many stupid people in this country....

We are living through an unprecedented thing that will go down in history.  If President Trump has anything to do with it, it will be referred to as the Chinese Flu.  Apparently somebody in the White house referred to it as Kung Flu - you gotta laugh, but at the same time it comes across as wrong and racist!  According to Trump the Chinese President tried to claim that American soldiers infected China with the virus and Trump being the weirdo that he is reacted very childishly and is now trying to get the virus to be called the Chinese Virus.

This morning I tried to get all my kids to watch Dr John Campbell on youtube, who has recorded a daily rundown of all the things we know scientifically and mathematically - what to expect and how to effect it.  But I don't think I succeeded in getting any of them to watch - apart from Lissa who watched one of them but is so scared she doesn't seem to want to know the extent of it - which is understandable as she is 30 weeks pregnant!

So - my view about this - we won't be able to stop this virus and although we might slow it down - it is going to alter life as we know it for at least a year - we will either all succumb because we couldn't stop it or slow it down and only the fittest will survive or we do slow it down and we get a vaccine.  Either way - it has already had the effect of millions of ppl not at work, massive job losses - and the government handing out billions to businesses and to the people. 

As far as I am concerned personally - I am quite scared about catching it, because some younger/healthy people have also had a really hard time of it with this virus, and for all I know by the time I get it, the hospitals will be so overrun I wont be able to get any medical help.  I worry the same (more) about Andy who has had mild asthma in the past and is probably not at his healthiest.  So there is a real fear about not surviving the virus and also even if not fatal it sounds really awful.  This fear is then multiplied so much when you think of all your family members - all the people you love and who might suffer or even die.  This is not even being dramatic - these are genuine concerns because we are being reminded 24 hours a day of the spread - of the numbers going up and up all over the world.  Number of new cases and deaths, as well as recovered.  As I write this there are currently 288,593 cases in the world (what we know about - it must be WAY higher than this) with 11,947 deaths.  In the UK we have 4,104 known cases (thought to actually be 30,00-40,000 in reality) and 178 deaths.

So - in all this madness, I am supposed to be starting a new job on 31 March 2020 (a week on Monday), with a one week IT training course.  I have no idea at all if that will be cancelled along with my offer of employment or whether, it might be seen as an essential role at the moment....I am waiting to find out.

I might try and keep this blog updated at this historical time!

Keep safe!