Suddenly colour is returning to Yorkshire. Well one colour. Most definitely yellow. It is such a welcome sight after so many grey months. Takes your mind off other matters.
Need to be open and honest with son.
“Dad whats the number of people with the virus now”
“Officially its 750 but now they say up to 10000 may have it”
“OMG I thought the experts said our approach was working well. How can they have got the figure so wrong”
“It’s down to testing. For some reason we only tested those with symptoms who had visited high risk countries. They didn’t seem to test if you had been abroad. Clearly they missed a lot of proper cases.”
“That sounds so stupid.”
“Yes it’s not great is it”
“Dad why hasn’t Boris closed the schools down yet”
“Apparently it’s on the basis of expert advice.”
“Many other countries and regions have closed them down, won’t that be on expert advice as well”
“Apparently Boris and his experts think that school closures and banning public events is not based on the correct expert advice.”
“What makes our advice better then”
“Probably need to ask an expert about that. We seem to be saying that if schools are closed it’s pointless as the kids will mix in large numbers anyway. We also seem to be saying that if we stop people going to things like football and concerts then they will just go to smaller events. And they argue that smaller events are potentially worse sources of infection. Football has been stopped for a month now but that was not the government, they were happy for the matches to go ahead. It was the Football Authorities who stopped the games.”
“That sounds a bit dodgy. Surely Dad the point is to reduce the number of people you mix with. Schools, football, trains, buses and concerts are some of our biggest mixing areas.”
“I bet they will eventually have to change their minds on some of these. But it is daft.”
“I think a big part of it is that the last few governments have really cut back on the NHS and made child care more expensive. They don’t have enough doctors and nurses. If schools close then a lot of parents will not be able to go to work as they will need to look after their children. The NHS can’t cope with that now. I’ve also heard several in the government mention that shutting schools will hurt the economy.”
“So it’s about money then really”
“Probably is but they won’t say that. Easier to just tell people it’s expert advice.”
“So how are they trying to control the virus if they don’t close things down.”
“It seems to be something called the herd. The Chief Doctor talked about needing at least 60% of the population to recover from the virus for the country to start to develop immunity from further outbreaks”
“That’s the plan. Wow. So we are trying to get something like 40 to 50 million infected here. Going to be an awful lot of not very healthy or old people caught up in that. That’s not a good plan. Sounds like they have decided not to do anything. Rather have people keep making money than keep them safe.”
“Totally agree. Surely locking stuff down for a couple of weeks will help dampen the virus down. At least push it into the summer months.“
I’d rather take my chances in France or Germany. At least they are trying to still contain it.”
“Dad what’s the new rule about school and being ill. If I cough does that get me a week home isolation.”
“Basically those are the new rules“
“Well Dad. COUGH. COUGH. That should do it. Wake me about 11am on Monday.”
Well next week I will probably get the chance to check out more yellows. My zero hours contract is living up to it’s zero in the coming days. Next week I might get a couple of hours work at most. So the new sports car and beach apartment in Monte Carlo will have to wait a few more days. But it doesn’t matter in the scheme of things. It really doesn’t. More important things in life. As a much wiser blogger than me put it – it’s time to breathe….
Update
Two hours later news broke that the government has reluctantly banned large public events. Not on health grounds but to relieve pressure on emergency services. I guess the real reason was the events were getting cancelled by the organisers anyway and the government didn’t want to be seen to be dithering.
A Dad trying to cope with the loss of his Partner and becoming a single parent. 