Welcome to 2022. Where covid is still here, despite the government scrapping regulations that were trying to keep people protected.
Now instead of trying to keep on top of it & protect the most vulnerable in society, we are being told to "learn to live with it" & get on with our lives.
Sadly for over 150k people, they have no life left to live as they have died & many of their families have not even been able to be with their loved ones in their final moments or attend funerals.
Many people understand that the way this whole pandemic has been handled has been nothing short of a total cock up from the very start.
Of course, its a once in a lifetime occurance (hopefully) & being able to forsee how things will evolve is always going to be difficult but when corruption, lying & incompetence are added to the mix then things get really complicated - & people die as a result, thousands of them.
With hindsight, many people would probably agree that the way the pandemic has been handled has been far from ideal. The economy has been the priority rather than people & that means that the suffering has been much worse that it needed to be.
It is almost 2 years since most of us heard the word "covid" for the first time & since then it has been ever present. Most conversations will mention it at some point, either in the supermarket queue or at the school gates or round the dinner table.
Opinions get shared, tempers get frayed & arguments ensue. The pro's & cons of wearing a mask; vaccination status; kids in/out of school; another lockdown.
Many people have struggled over the past 2 years - those working on the frontline like NHS staff or those who are disabled or vulnerable & have been stuck at home desperatly trying to avoid being infected.
Covid has divided families in so many ways. Either through differences of opinion or because of lockdown rules forcing them apart. It has & continues to be hard for so many people.
According to statistics, over 153,000 people have died from covid but the actual figure is bound to be much higher if you take into account the number of people who have taken their own lives due to mental health issues during the past 2 years. This is something that doesn't seem to be mentioned much. The stress of covid restrictions on small businesses; on family life etc will have long reaching consequences.
Will we ever see the back of covid or is it going to be ever present in our lives? Something we absorb into our daily lives & accept as the norm. Who knows, but one thing is for sure, it has changed us far more than we know unfortunately.
