Their lives are more important than ours

So Mum and I both tested positive the day after Boxing Day.

We were both vaxxed so it wasn’t much more than a medium strength flu episode; lots of sleeping, staying in bed for a week etc.

The bad news, is a month later we both have odd symptoms. She saw what appeared to be a sudden rise in hypertension, and I’m sitting here wondering why my kidneys are sore (have been fasting on veg soup and water with no alcohol or coffee for a week now and not a huge change). We’ve both now spoken to GPs and had tests but no tangible outcomes.

As a society we are just not set up to cope with this.

Covid is turning out to be the accident you have in your 20s that haunts you in your later years. You get better, but it takes you down a notch, and the care you need becomes hazy, complex, expensive, and long. We all know this is exactly the sort of care the NHS was never very good at providing.

So with all that in mind I read this text in the paper this morning and wanted to write it down to keep. I’ve been reflecting on this message of injustice, that showy displays of buying PPE are quick and cheap by comparison, while making changes to infrastructure are slow and expensive. We are what we commit to…

George Monbiot expresses it perfectly in this Guardian editorial

The Guardian, 27 January 2023

… The importance of ventilation and filtration is not lost on our lords and masters. Parliament now has a sophisticated air filter system, incorporating electrostatic precipitators. According to the contractor that fitted them, they ensure airborne viruses and bacteria are “kept to an absolute minimum within the space”.

The same goes for the government departments where ministers work. At the World Economic Forum in Davos this month, there were filtration systems in every room, in some cases protecting politicians who have denied them to their own people.

It’s almost as if they believe their lives are more important than ours. …