In Episode 13 of his new book, author Julian Roup agrees with the Sunday Times that Britain has sleep-walked into this Covid-19 catastrophe.
In case you missed Episode 12, click here.
Life in a Time of Plague
Sussex, 19th April 2020
By Julian Roup
Now and then I will cough or sneeze, and a little tremor of foreboding runs through me. Last thing at night, just before going to sleep, and first thing in the morning when waking up, I check my breathing and lung capacity and breathe more easily once I feel that all is well. And I say a little prayer of thanks.
The official death toll stands at 15,500 today but there are the uncounted 4,000 dead in nursing homes, an under-reported number, and then there are the home deaths, so the true figure must be around 20,000 dead at least from Coronavirus on April 19th.
It is a beautiful Sunday morning, and The Observer reports: “Humanity will have to live with the threat of coronavirus ‘for the foreseeable future’ and adapt accordingly, because there is no guarantee that a vaccine can be successfully developed, one of the world’s leading experts on the disease has warned. This stark message was delivered by David Nabarro, professor of global health at Imperial College, London, and an envoy for the World Health Organisation on Covid-19, as the number of UK hospital deaths from the virus passed 15,000.”
Other nations were quick out of the blocks on this catastrophe and with testing, tracing, isolation and lockdown, minimised deaths. Britain, still arguing about Brexit and a new Tory Landslide Government elected just before Christmas, celebrating its victory, has sleep-walked into this horror. And there is not going to be any ‘All Clear’ siren ringing out over the land anytime soon. The spectre of death is going to be haunting us for a very long time. We will get up with it and go to bed with it and it will be an unwelcome guest at every human contact we have however far away from each other we stand.
A very significant political development this morning comes in the form of a devastating front-page blast in the Sunday Times, owned by Rupert Murdoch, Britain’s media kingmaker whose ring every would-be Prime Minister is expected to kiss. It describes how “over the past 38 days, Britain has sleep-walked into catastrophe,” making mistake after mistake. Having Murdoch turn on them in this savage way will electrify the Tories. Coronavirus is making for strange bedfellows. I never expected to find Murdoch in my bed. Go figure!
For most of us, the economic results are going to be devastating at a personal level as well as at a national level. And in the end, because of the threat of impoverishment we are going to have to accept the higher death rate of our elderly, rather than bankruptcy and social destabilisation. We’ve reached a point that many so called ‘simple societies’, hunter-gatherers like the San Bushmen, reach with old and sick relatives – they are left behind, propped up against a tree or under a bush with an ostrich egg full of water to await death, as the young and fit march on.
There are strange and exquisitely horrible stories emerging from the mess. Police are calling for an end to ‘lockdown-shaming’ as a weapon in feuds. Police forces are receiving thousands of complaints about lockdown rule-breaking and they fear many of these are being used to settle scores. Britain is a nation now using the coronavirus to continue fights with neighbours. The vendetta has arrived. So much for the Spirit of the Blitz.
In the USA, Black and Latino communities are the hardest hit by the virus. In New York, which has become the global epicentre of the disaster, black men are nervous about wearing masks, as this has traditionally made them targets for the police.
Meanwhile, Trump criticises state governors for ‘going too far’ with the lockdown as he gives support to those who are protesting against it across Middle America.
And for those of us cheered up by the music industry and its antics, this morning brings reviews of the One World At Home Concert with among others, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Elton John, Billie Eilish and The Rolling Stones, singing from their living rooms in isolation. The voyeur in us is as interested in the furnishings as the artists and their songs.
The UK’s open borders policy – suddenly so different from its Brexit closed borders policy – is leading to some bizarre results. Our approach is turning Britain into a refuge for the richest travellers. “We’ve seen a very big increase in the number of super yachts coming to the UK to berth because they cannot enter ports in the Mediterranean,” said Anne Carson, owner of Super Yacht Services Falmouth. “I would say there have been 20 or more in the last few weeks alone, which is very high for this time of year.”
Anything to do with the spending power of these people, or just Christian goodwill? We will never know.
And to be fair – cease my cynical heart – at least 15,000 people are still flying in to the UK each day with no screening for coronavirus, according to Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, not all of them billionaires surely? Hancock (increasingly referred to as Matt Handjob) said the equivalent of 105,000 travellers land per week, including from hotspot nations such as China, Italy and the United States. The government has not imposed any health checks or quarantine periods for people coming in to the country. In contrast, the US banned all travellers from Europe, and New Zealand enforced a mandatory 14-day quarantine for anyone entering.
The UK government has consistently said screening passengers on arrival here would do very little to contain the spread of the virus. During an appearance on Good Morning Britain earlier this week, Mr Hancock defended the position. He said: “We don’t test at airports because the number of people coming through has dropped dramatically. The epidemiological impact of keeping travel open is very small because there’s already large transmissions here.” Testing also often fails to identify sufferers due to the virus’s two-week incubation period.
The airports are also open to facilitate the entry of cargo including food, and to allow for the repatriation of UK citizens stranded abroad.
The FT reports: “The UK is setting itself apart from the rest of the world by maintaining loose border controls even as dozens of countries continue to clamp down on international travellers in an attempt to stem the coronavirus outbreak. At two million this week, Britain remained in a small club of nations that have failed to match the tighter borders and stringent quarantine rules on arriving travellers that are now common in other countries. “The UK is an outlier,” said Professor Gabriel Scally, president of epidemiology and public health at the Royal Society of Medicine. “It is very hard to understand why it persists in having this open borders policy. It is most peculiar.”
More than 130 countries have introduced some form of travel restrictions since the coronavirus outbreak began, say Oxford university researchers tracking the measures. These include screening, quarantine and bans on travel from high-risk areas. As a result, at least 90 per cent of the global population lives in countries with restrictions on non-citizens and non-residents arriving from abroad, while 39 per cent live behind borders that are entirely closed to foreigners, according to Pew Research Center analysis published at the start of April. Since then, authorities in Japan, China, Germany and elsewhere have tightened or extended travel controls, while many require arriving passengers to be tested.
Heaven help us, Michael Gove MP, is chairing the group running the UK while Boris recovers. The group includes Richie Sunak the Chancellor and Dominic Raab the Foreign Secretary. Not that the return of Boris to Number 10 gives me any greater confidence of good government, just more pratfalls.
Here at home, yellow warning signs that say ‘Stay Home’ have gone up in the woods nailed to trees. This is a consequence of so many more walkers than usual using the woods and some of them criticising horse riders who are also using the woods to exercise their animals. Our next-door neighbour, Spencer, who owns the woods, is responsible.
To take my mind off all the trouble of the world yesterday I baked a loaf of whole meal bread as Jan has finally managed to source some dry yeast. It is delicious, if I say so myself, and as Jan is wheat-intolerant, I have it all to myself! When cool, I slice it up and place it in the deep freeze for use as toast. I am filled with the energy of a homesteader, a survivor.
As I eat my breakfast on the lawn this morning – wholewheat toast and marmalade with my second coffee of the day, I can hear our neighbour’s children playing with the two orphan lambs, who now follow them around like pet dogs. The family dogs Roo and Belle look on, somewhat bewildered by this turn of events.
At times my husbandly patience runs thin indoors. Jan asks me to use anti-septic spray on the taps before I turn them off after washing my hands, on the food as soon as it is delivered, on the front door handle, on my phone daily, on my clothes when I’ve carried a box of food into the kitchen. She’s right of course, but I have to suppress irritation each time she does it. I have to remind myself that this virus is deadly in its infectiousness and Jan is simply trying to protect me, to save my miserable life. Grudgingly I comply. How stupid is that!
Next door on our left, I can hear a dressage competition starting up. As I believe horses to be the best medicine I can hardly take umbrage, but it does drive home the fact that currently I am not riding, nor is Jan.
As I finish typing, I look up to see swallows flying circuits of our garden and then perching on the TV aerial on the cottage roof. Our swallows are back from Africa! At least I’ve lived to see that this spring. I can feel tears welling up. Thank God for small mercies.
Click here for Episode 14.
