These are all mourners. Holding a candle for their dearly departed. It is only when you experience grief and see it at close quarters do you realise the impact it has on individuals and how massive the sense of loss is. It might diminish over time but it never quite leaves you. It must be even harder to lose a loved one to Corona when you aren’t even able to see them or even have a funeral. This is why we must do everything we can to follow the lockdown rules. Our vigilance can prevent death and if you can save just one life, you can save the world.
Everyone seems to be watching the death stats round the clock. We feel we need to be constantly up-to-date with the figures but it also tapping into our sense of morbidity. A fascination with death is integral to living but we musn’t forget behind every single one of those numbers is a real person who lived and breathed and has left behind grief-stricken family members. Our government casually mentioned that we would be lucky to keep deaths under 20,000 and Trump said the same but with a zero added for the U.S. But I find it quite chilling how can they be quite so nonchalant about it. These are actual human beings. They are not just statistics.
We need empathy right now, not cold detachment. Everyone’s pain is our pain. We should not wait until it directly affects us to realise that every preventable death is on all of us and that is why we must adhere to the quarantine rules with vigilance. It might not be your loved one today, but it could be any of ours tomorrow if we don’t reign this thing in. And for fuck’s sake, get every NHS worker tested, for theirs and their patient’s sake. Their lives depend on it and they deserve that at the very least when they are risking so much for us all.
Our government is busy bailing out EasyJet whilst still not providing enough PPE to NHS staff. If you want to support them you can easily donate £5 by texting the word CLAP to 70507 and it will go directly to staff for food/travel etc. This is something every single one of us can do but in all honesty we shouldn’t really have to. They should be provided for. So we must also pressurise the government to properly fund our vital health and welfare services and their staff instead of giving our money to private companies who are doing nothing but pollute the atmosphere. Let them stand on their own two feet or fail. We can all now live without unnecessary travel. Corona has shown us how.
This post is dedicated to Jim Morrison who sadly passed away in hospital from the Corona virus yesterday. Deepest condolences to his family and also to everyone who has lost someone from this pandemic. Our thoughts are with you.