A good day today. A bit of a late start to the day but it is the weekend. I headed off to the Horniman Museum gardens to meet up with my friend with the funky shoes. We chatted. We gossiped and we had a few laughs.
I’ve largely avoided the news today. A knife attack in a park in Reading has left 3 people dead. It’s been declared a terrorist incident. It makes no sense.
And Covid-19 rumbles on. A further 43 deaths bringing the total to 42,632. Let’s just hope no Ministers say how ‘proud’ we should all be with how this has all been managed in the UK. Or refer to 43 deaths as ‘only’ 43 deaths.
It looks like we’ll be seeing a further easing of lockdown restrictions from 4 July. We’re unclear what this might mean. It also looks like we’ll be seeing a reduction in the recommended social distancing rule from 2 metres to 1 metre, or somewhere in between. Being 1 metre apart is 10 times the risk of being 2 metres apart. Obviously not an issue if the numbers of people out and about that have Covid-19 are extremely low, whether you’re indoors or outdoors and so on. But the numbers aren’t there yet.
We still have no figures on the numbers of people who have been tested.
Around 5% to 7% of the population in the UK have had the virus and/or have the antibodies to it. We don’t know enough to know how long this might confer immunity. That is, you could have it once, be immune for a while, and then catch it again.
And concerns remain for a second peak. There’s little faith in the national Track and Trace programme. Certainly the tech solution has been an utter and dismal failure. The most frustrating element of this tech solutionist approach is Ministers chose to ignore so much advice on why the system wouldn’t work. And oops, it doesn’t work.
As this all rumbles on, I start to look to the future. But it’s still difficult to plan, to think ahead too far. My business has taken a hit. I’m taking the time to reassess. I don’t know when I’ll get back to Australia. I suspect it will be some months yet.
And the things I’m getting hopeful about are truly mundane. The first is a haircut. I have short hair and don’t feel like myself having gone 100 days without a haircut. The second is to escape the ‘within walking distance’ confines of Southeast London. I want to see the ocean. I want to see some woods and fields.
So that’s it for Day 90. Stay safe, stay well, and stay home!