Pandemic now two years old, leaves its mark on society
An email from a friend told me his six-year-old daughter had tested positive for Covid, which she contracted from a schoolmate. Soon afterwards, my friend revealed that he had taken a home test and was also positive. Inevitably, a third communication later said his wife had joined the casualty list.
The news was a reminder that however much the war in Ukraine and economic problems at home dominate the headlines, the pandemic, now two years old, has not gone away.
True, the rules in England are today less strict. Infected people are no longer legally required to isolate, just advised to avoid contact with others for five days.
Masks are not required in most public spaces, though they must be worn in hospitals and care homes, as well as in mosques, synagogues and Catholic churches (recommended but not mandatory in Anglican churches), and in some places of entertainment.
However, the long viral siege has left its mark in other areas of social behaviour. For instance, my recently reopened local theatre warns me that “some things will be a little different to your last visit”.
From now on, tickets will be email-style, you buy online and present your smart phone at the door. Seating is not socially distanced, therefore masks must be worn. And the theatre is now cashless, meaning that you need your card at all times, if only to buy an ice cream or a soda.
All this low-level IT will be second-nature to many, but I can see the older generation, the most prominent demographic in theatre-land, reacting grumpily to the new rules.
Not only the oldies, it seems!
There has been an upsurge of cases recently, mostly attributable to the BA2 variant of the Omicron strain, which is less dangerous but more transmissible than its predecessors.
Professor Roger Kirby, president of the Royal Society of Medicine, suggested riots would break out if the government tried to impose another lockdown as a result of the upsurge. In an interview marking two years since the first lockdown on March 23, 2020, Professor Kirby said, “I don’t think people would tolerate it again. There would be riots, as there were in Belgium, if ministers tried to do that.”
But the professor warned, “We are not out of the pandemic yet and must not risk becoming complacent.”
Scientists are keeping a constant watch for potentially more serious new variants while monitoring work underway on vaccines, which could provide longer-term protection.
As for the little family mentioned above, they followed the rules, kept to themselves for five days and are now happily back in mainstream society.
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The chastisement of children has always been an emotive topic and debate will undoubtedly be renewed by the decision last week of the government of Wales to outlaw the physical punishment of children.
Parents who smack, hit, slap or shake their children could face criminal charges under the new law. First Minister Mark Drakeford called it “an historic decision”, though critics bridled at “those who think they know better than parents”.
Scotland banned striking children in November 2020. In England and Northern Ireland, smacking is allowed, but only if it constitutes “reasonable punishment”.
However, a survey of 3,000 adults in England commissioned by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children showed that 64 per cent of respondents believed smacking children was “unacceptable”.
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Only a fool would dispute the advantages of modern technology, but its misuse continues to cause harm, such as children becoming involved in right-wing terrorism.
Britain’s anti-terror chief, Mr Matt Jukes, warned last week that boys mostly aged 14 and 15 were becoming self-radicalised online and then progressing to planning attacks.
Two boys convicted of such activities were only 13. One had created a neo-Nazi group and the second admitted possessing information useful to a terrorist.
Of 20 children arrested last year, 19 were linked to far-right ideologies.
