Throughout this current pandemic I’ve had various thoughts related to it but only recently come to realise that I’ve not shared any of them with you. Even though it is far from over – you got to believe that – I feel the time is right to say a couple of things.
Maybe, like me, you’ve watched the news each evening to see the recent figures from HM Government reported to get a feel of how things are going. As I write this it is clear to see that the number of those reported as infected and the daily deaths have levelled out. Hopefully their fall will resume as environmental factors and the vaccines have an increasing effect but let us not lose sight of this indication that the virus is still out there – variant or not.
While those figures are chilling in themselves, I have found the manner in which they are reported to be even more so. The newsreader is presented with a number of slides which they rattle through before getting back to the editor’s more important stories of lost dogs or football scores. Most disturbing to me is the seamless switch from ‘total deaths’ into ‘daily vaccinations’. This feels like the reporting the latest cricket scores.
But the death of any person is significant – and the death of 127,517 and rising is even more significant. Surely this deserves a pause – even if for 1 second – before going on to report on the rest of the statistics. In fact, there are one or two of the newsreaders who are aware of what they are reporting, moderating their tone and trying to do just that. But even these are driven onwards by the pressure of the ‘next slide please’. And most don’t even seem to notice.
To cap all this was the reporting of the progress of the virus in India over the last week or so. Phrases like ‘Deaths in India have been reported as reaching record levels’ were used. Is it only me that feels as if what is being reported was a target achieved for that country in the same manner as recording that one of their opening batsmen had set yet another world’s best score? And it wouldn’t have taken much to fix that impression – ‘Deaths in India have reached a new daily high total for any country during the current pandemic’. No mention of record, just reporting what it is. A lot more people dying in the country in one day than in anywhere else in the world.
I’ve found all this adding to my feelings about this global disease. It’s like I knew it was coming. You see back in 2017 I stumbled across a Radio 4 afternoon drama called ‘Resistance’. It was written by Val McDermid and is nothing like her usual crime stories. Her website reports that she was profoundly shocked about antibiotic resistance after attending a two day workshop. Listening to the play was shocking, chilling – and does still exist as a paid podcast from Penguin if you want to hear it. I also discovered while fact checking for this post that it is soon to be released as a graphic novel.
I’m not surprised that it has not been repeated like so many other things to fill gaps in the schedules caused by this pandemic. The parallels are too close. It is only the death rates of the real and imaginary viruses that are different. The one in the play is far more fatal. But the message is still there.
Nobody’s safe until everybody’s safe.
And, unfortunately, as the play coldly predicts, everybody will never be completely safe.
If there is one message to take from the current pandemic it is that we have been very lucky. It could have been much worse. And there is the potential to be much worse in the future. Let’s hope we have all learnt our lessons for now.
Keep well, stay safe.
The Unconventional Disciple 