I work as senior science tech in a school in London. But I also am part time care giver for someone with a whole range of medical conditions which would mean they would likely not survive this virus. This person is 35, not elderly....is married and most of the time leads a full life....is active in their community, organises conferences and does voluntary work. Not that I believe we should be leaving old people or those who have disabilities which mean they can't work to die either - my mother is 75 and on steroids while her partner is 80 and has a lung condition which would likely see him die too if he caught the COVID-19 illness. I'd rather not lose them until their time. Thankfully as of Wednesday my school's principal agreed that me travelling into London on trains and buses was too much of a risk to the people I help look after. Additionally 10 of the 14 staff in my department were either off sick, self isolating (one visited Italy) or given leave due to underlying conditions I've been doing limited working from home since Wednesday and definitely feel safer outside London where things are ahead of the rest of the UK. I do know someone who probably has the illness, he's got the high fever and possibly pneumonia - says it feels like his lungs are full. And the nice nurse who talked with him over the phone says they can't admit him to hospital until it's so bad he can't speak. He's in his 30s too and usually as strong as the proverbial ox. After today's school day the schools in the UK close......except they're remaining open to the offspring of essential workers. It is still unclear if my "work from home when we send you documents to work on" will be ongoing or if they'll ask me back. I fully accept that a possible 3-4 months (or more) off on full pay is a big ask. I'm glad they're currently enabling me to still care for the people I care about.
This is not "stupid" or "annoying". This is genuinely killing people. Spouses, parents, children, nieces, nephews.
As for physical shops, some areas of the world are on "lockdown" with only essential shops open. I am given to understand this means supermarkets, bakers, butchers, pet stores (for pet food), DIY stores for essentials, pharmacies. Places like camera shops would be closed. However business may continue online if that's seen as viable. A one or two person operation may be able to continue.
Here in the UK we're not on such a lockdown, though we're encouraged to work from home and avoid close social contact....so we're encouraged not to go to restaurants and pubs but they're not closed. I was last "out and about" on Wednesday evening and there were certainly far fewer people in the restaurants in town but there were a few. The one restaurant I looked into had hand sanitiser stations on the walls and were carefully sanitising each table after each use. But....that may not be sufficient in coming weeks. We pretty much know that a more severe "lockdown" is coming here. Though thankfully Londoners are being fairly sensible - trips on London Transport are down over 60%, even 80% in some areas. Our graph isn't following that of Italy. But we'll still need to be careful. It is said there are 12,000 ventilators in the country. We need to be sure that at any time there are no more than 12,000 people needing them.
Annoying? No. Challenging? Yes. It's going to be detrimental to careers, livelihoods, mental health and to the world's economies. Probably like nothing since world war II. Hopefully it won't last as long. It almost certainly won't be as damaging as that war if we actually follow the advice given. It's going to be challenging to change our ways too. But it's already having unpredicted effects on the environment...dolphins back in the canals of Venice which are visibly running cleaner too....atmospheric measurements already showing that the decrease in travel has caused improvements.
Meanwhile, while the UK is not on lockdown, I plan on taking a walk soon to local parks to take photos of the wildlife and landscape - as such walks are specifically recommended. In the UK the National Trust has opened up it's parks and gardens for free - though houses and cafes are shut. Such outdoor spaces - while we are not in de facto lockdwon - are a great opportunity to get outdoors and to take photos. Then we can continue to support the film manufacturers, darkroom supply manufacturers, labs and so on. Even if we have to post our films to labs we previously visited on foot.
