Building the recovery

At first the Pandemic was a bit of a novelty – slightly scarey but we all suspected it wouldn’t be as bad as they said. It was a long way away. Even shutting down was okay as it would only be for about three weeks.

Then we had furlough, so the Pandemic wasn’t going to be so bad. At home with no work on at least 80% of pay for a wee while – bring it on! 

We encouraged each other to become fearful of shortages, so isolationism (which used to be called self-preservation and is a close cousin of outrageous selfishness) set in and some started hoarding toilet paper – and infant formula. Understandable maybe but pretty far from admirable.

Then the Pandemic started killing serious numbers of people in Italy and Spain and we realised this actually was “a Thing”. We saw hospitals and medical staff being swamped and emergency hospitals springing up, and we got seriously afraid.

So the streets fell eerily quiet.

Honour and pride 

Many people responded by setting up local support networks; by fast-tracking scientific discovery or staffing Foodbanks – even coming out of retirement to offer help.

We miraculously found housing for the homeless.  

The Pandemic brought out the best in people and, to be honest, most of the country did what it had to do; stayed at home; helped the NHS and saved lives.

We felt helpless in the face of those bearing most of the burden; the food providers, the energy providers and, of course, those providing care. So we clapped. And we sewed. And we wrung our hands at the lack of PPE.

Gin companies switched to making hand sanitisers and manufacturers altered their systems to create plastic masks. People worked insane hours. 

An old man walked 100 times round his garden and we all fell head over heels in love with him, so we sent money. Amidst the bad, it was apparent that Good things could come from the Pandemic.

Genuine change

With most people working from home we had wild deer in the High Street and a self-repairing ozone layer. The destruction of the rainforests slowed and aviation pollution ground virtually to a halt.

You could almost hear the planet taking a deep breath of vastly cleaner air and we marvelled – it was really that easy to reverse human damage, human behaviour, when faced with the Pandemic.

We worked from home and didn’t need endless meetings and business travel. We cancelled holidays and said “Oh well, it has to be done”. 

We cut food waste and started to feed ourselves on home-cooked meals and home baked bread and we watched the news every night. We saw the faces and heard the terrible stories of those killed and maimed by the Pandemic, and we wept.

Fighting back

After what seemed like an age, the oncoming tide of infections started to turn and it became more practical to discuss things like National Debt; the fate of companies going bust and of individuals losing their jobs.

The pandemic meant home-schooling and sacrifice and loneliness and isolation. It meant an escalation of mental health issues and a rise in domestic abuse. 

Scammers abounded and found new ways to prey on the vulnerable. Some people started to defy the restrictions – many who should have known better. Bending the rules of the Pandemic just a tad further over time saying, “What does it really matter?”

Folks started to get angry and increasingly militant online.

They blamed the government for everything, including the actions of individuals and argued that staying at home was worse than the Pandemic.   

So we started to assert ourselves. Everybody else was doing it, so why not us? Let’s have a march. Let’s go to the beach. Let’s have a rave.

So what now?

The Pandemic has brought out the best and the worst in us. It has certainly provided opportunity to reflect and assess our own values and the values of those in government.

The Pandemic is not over and for every single one of us, individual choices will now shape the recovery. 

How easy it is to write those words.