Lessons of Covid - five years on

The fifth anniversary of the start of the COVID pandemic has brought back, many, often painful, memories. Loved ones lost, long COVID sufferers, mental health issues. The country has still not fully recovered from the pandemic. I was in Rye, as the country moved towards the first lockdown in March 2020. My brother and I sat in an empty pub, as the hatches were being batoned down. Strange, to again be in Rye in the same week five years later. No one knew back then what was to come. At first, people were put under virtual house arrest. People obeyed the rules in the main, with government and media, making great play of the few who didn't. Fear was openly used to control the population. Did any other country obsess quite as much as this one about the death figures? These together with infection rates were a daily feature of news bulletins. Health workers were heroic, putting their own lives on the line to save others. Indeed, those ordinary working people across the key services all did exemplary work, making huge sacrifices. Pity, that the shameful government, whose ministers clapped those staff, later refused the pay rises they deserved, once the pandemic was over. They had ofcourse also failed to protect them. This was the same government that took the opportunity to reward it's mates with lucrative contracts for vital services during the pandemic. It can never be said the Boris Johnson's government wasted the opportunities created by the crisis. Then, ofcourse, as ordinary people were punished for the slightest infringement of "the rules", Downing Street partied on with a classic do as I say, not as I do attitude. This really was not governments finest hour. Though, there should be credit given for the rapid role out of the vaccines. The whole pandemic was a strange period, turning everything upside down, normal life suspended for the best part of two years. One of the amazing things was how something that had dominated everybody's life, suddenly disappeared from the headlines- almost as if it never happened. The pandemic though did huge damage. More than 200,000 people dead, two million today with long COVID and millions suffering with mental health issues. A generation of children scarred. We are still picking up the pieces from COVID. Lessons need to be learned, such as never again to run down the health and care sectors, so that the country struggles to cope when crisis hits. Nor, is it right to now be turning on many of those who still suffer with the legacy of COVID by cutting their welfare support. Perhaps, most importantly the country needs to be ready for the next pandemic. Sadly, some of the things going on at international level now make another pandemic ever more likely. The big positive to come from the COVID period was how most people stepped up and came together to help their fellow human beings. It was the best of humanity and shows that there is always hope, even in what seem the darkest of times.