The world is still in the grips of the global pandemic, Covid-19. Personally, I’m sick of it and have been for months now. The first wave was scary and no one really knew what was going to happen next and then things calmed down thanks to national lockdowns. The second wave has come back with vengeance though. As countries have opened back up, the virus has spread again.
Whilst I’m fed up and I’m fatigued by it all I also feel grateful that it hasn’t made anyone I know and care about really ill. I’ve also been able to keep my job because I have spent the last 8 months working from home and in the process have saved up more money than I would have when things were ‘normal’. Useful for when you have a wedding to pay for (whenever that will be).
I haven’t been out much, have followed the social distancing guidelines and have only found myself going to the shop when I absolutely have to. I’m lucky enough to have an exercise bike so I can still get some good exercise done without having to go outside. However, it’s always been comforting knowing I could go out for a walk if I really wanted to.
Now I find myself in a situation where I have to self-isolate on the run-up to Christmas.
After my son recently tested positive (and thankfully has only shown minor symptoms) it was the duty of my partner and me to get tests done too, especially as we felt as if we were getting a bit of a cold.
When a single child gets a virus, the whole class then gets it and then the whole school gets it and eventually it ripples out and affects the parents and their extended families. That’s why it’s been important that schools have had ‘year group bubbles’. Alas, when one child gets Covid-19, it then brings down entire year groups.
This stuff spreads like wildfire.
Getting a covid-19 test: what’s it like?
We booked our own tests at the same test site our son had got his done and drove over the following morning. The evening before we got our emails telling us what we needed to do; take ID and our QR codes on our phones (that we got in our emails) to be scanned when we reached the test centre.
When we arrived at the test centre (which had been converted from a theatre car park) I was quite impressed with what I saw. A makeshift pathway lead to a small tent where a man scanned my QR code on my phone. I then proceeded to show him my ID and he told me to follow the path to the testing tent.
The whole area looked like some kind of quarantine area you’d find in a zombie movie or a video game-like Dying Light where empty testing sites are scattered across cities, white tents like large marquees were dotted between the makeshift pathways and men and women in hi-vis jackets and face masks stood at each entrance point talking on their radios. It was deadly silent, only adding to the eeriness of the scene in front of me.
As I proceeded through the metal barriers that formed the path either side of me, I finally reached the main tent that must have been a good 50 metres long. At the entrance, I held my QR code up again to be scanned and a man directed me where to go. Small seating areas came off each side of the path inside the tent where there were small tables a chair and of course, the test on the tables.
The man, standing two metres away from me and wearing a mask began to direct me in how to take the test. Pretty simple – rub the swap in your mouth for 10 seconds and then put it up to your nose for 10 seconds, all hopefully without gagging! Once you’re done you have to put your swap in the tube with the solution in it, snap off the end and then do the lid up, pop it in the bag it came in and then walk down to the exit and drop the bag into the bin.
The whole process probably took 3 minutes tops. It was a strange experience for sure and probably not one you’ll have to do again in a hurry (at least let’s hope not). All in all I was very impressed with how fast it took. Luckily the test centre was very quiet and there was only one other person in there taking a test at the same time as me.
We then received our emails telling us to self-isolate, especially as we lived with someone who had tested positive.
How long does it take to get your coronavirus test results back?
About 8 weeks prior to having my test done I had a nasty virus which prompted me to get a test done then too. I ordered mine online at that time and it took a couple of days to receive it in the mail. It then took 6 days to get my test results back which of course was not very good!
However, this time around it only took 18 hours to get an email telling both my partner and I that we don’t have Covid-19. Truth be told, I was surprised we were negative considering we are of course very close to our son. Nevertheless, we still find ourselves forced into quarantine between the four walls of our apartment for the next 10 days.
So, this is my coronavirus diary where I’ll be updating how the quarantine is going whilst the first doeses of the vaccine are being distributed in the UK. I guess the main reason why I’m writing this coronavirus diary isso that one day I can look back at this time and remember what it was like.
It’ll hopefully also be useful for anyone in the future to get a feel for what a global pandemic is like.
My Coronavirus Diary
Things are so strange right now and they have been for so long. It feels like we’ve been living with this virus for longer than a year in some ways. Back in March / April I used to watch the news breifings religeously as the government would give the nation a daily update on infection rates.
These days, I rarely check the infection numbers. It’s as if I have become numb to the situation we’re in. I suppose human beings are so adaptive that we can even get used to something like this. However, this is when it’s important not to get complacent which if I’m honest, I have at times. Life is hectic and you have things to do, sometimes you just forget that there’s still a dangerous virus circulating.
It’s easy to forget how bad this virus can be and we’re still not even sure why it can affects different people in different ways. It’s obvious that older people are at higher risks of getting really ill but why do some young people get really ill and others don’t? why do some people show symptoms and others don’t?
I’ve personally known one person who found themselves in hospital on a ventilator. They were in critical condition for weeks and weeks and it was very touch and go. They’re not even in their 60’s yet. They’re even someone who runs a lot and looks after themselves.
Locked inside for 10 days
Being locked up for 10 days was hard. Even though theres not much to do these days with everthing closed because of Covid, I’ve still been going out for walks and to grab things from the shops when I’ve needed to.
I’ve been itching to go out and stretch my legs. After the first couple of days of self isolation I started to get irritable. I wanted a couple of things from the shop but realised that we would have to wait for a relative to go and get what we needed for us. Not the biggest of problems in the grand scheme of things but kind of annoying when you’re used to being able to move where and when you want.
Still, we had our health and that was the main thing, especially when you hear all the awful news about infection rates on the TV. The 10 days went surprisingly fast and I spent a lot of my time playing games, writing and exercising. It’s funny in a way because I’d think back to all the times I’d be at work, stressed or bored out of my mind and wish I was at home relaxing. When I find myself in that exact situation, I’m not happy either!
By the time we were out of self isolation it was Christmas. Like everyone else, we spent the festive period at home whereas we would normally be at our relatives houses. It was a small sacrifice we were willing to make on top of all the other sacrifices we made in 2020. If it meant the virus would dampen down then that’s what we would do.
Massive government failures along the way
This is the new normal I suppose. Whether you love or hate that phrase (personally I don’t mind it) it’s true. I can’t see how things are going to go back to how they were before this virus struck the globe. We’ve tried national lockdowns to contain the virus. So far, lockdowns have been a massive failure. I can’t help but feel as if we didn’t take this virus seriously.
If you trace back how the prime minister responded from day one, you see a number of changes in direction. Further still, it is blarringly obvious that all of the decisions that have been made have been to protect the economy first, not human life. And, I must say, this has made me incredibly angry.
I’m probably the least political person you’d ever meet (at least I think so) but when it comes to the handling of this pandemic in the UK, I am bitterly disappointed with the people who are supposed to be in charge. Even the Health Secretary said that “the UK is ready and prepared for this virus” at the beginning of last year. What a complete and utter lie that was.
Maybe I was just a naive young person but growing up I used to think of the government as being some kind of overarching powerful, entity that looked after its people I’d also imagine it to have those much smarter than the rest of us all working together to solve complex problems. However, the reality seems quite different. If nothing else, this pandemic has shown how no one in the government seems to know what they’re doing. Worse still, they just make it all up as they go along. The truth is, anyone could do most of their jobs much better than them.
When your sole focus becomes serving yourself instead of those that elected you, you lose scope of what you’re suppose to be doing in the first place. The whole situation and failure to have any kind of control over this pandemic has killed any kind of belief I had left in the government.
This is why I believe strongly that it is important to look after yourself. The vast majority of the people in government don’t have your best interests at heart so it’s vital you take care of you first. In other cases, some departments just don’t have enough resources put into them. Some didn’t have enough resources allocated in them before this pandemic and its only going to get worse. This is why it’s never been more important to take care of your mental wellbeing.
I know that’s easier said than done, especially if you have ill loved ones or you’ve lost your job during this time and if that is you then I’m very sorry. There’s been so much suffering this past year. Depression rates have shot up during this pandemic because it’s tipped peoples lives over. Staff in hospitals have experienced PTSD from the trauma they have seen.
If there ever was a time when the world needed something to make it change for the better it would be now.
Do you really want to go back to normal after Covid-19?
Everyone keeps talking about “wanting to go back to normal after Covid-19”, and whilst I agree to an extent, I personally want to go forward to something better than the way things were before. I don’t want to go back to mindless consumerism, sitting in traffic for hours a day, feeling unhealthy, feeling poor both in terms of materials and mentally.
I want things to shift to something much better than all of that. I want the idea of remote working to continue instead of being huddled into cramped offices with other people that might be sick. I want people to be as considerate to each other as they were at the beginning of this pandemic.
I don’t want things to go back to focusing on profits.
I want things to revolve around people’s mental wellbeing. If mental wellbeing is at a high level then you’ll get the best out of people and as a result of that you’ll get more productive people.
Let’s be honest, the industrial world for last 100 years was focused on overworking workers to get the most amount of revenue at the other end. It’s a system that makes big businesses vast amounts of money whilst making those who work the jobs miserable and always chasing the next paycheck so they don’t go under.
Surely there has to be something that changes all of this. Perhaps Covid-19 could be this thing, along with an increase in job automation. The world is due an overhaul that makes people’s lives more enjoyable and less about chasing money. It’s about time.
Before the pandemic hit the world I was already feeling this way. Life was feel stagnant, as if we were on a hamster wheel just going along with the status quo to simply survive. What would actually happen if you enriched the way people felt? What would people feel like if they were truly supported and felt as if they had security in their lives?
I’d argue that the feel so much more stable that they’d start to be more creative without the stress of bills and the like. They’d start using their real talents to make the world a better place. If the focus came off making as much money as possible then there would be space to actually make the world a better place in so many different areas.
I’ve always said that people don’t just get depressed because they have something wrong with them. Most of the time, and from what I see in daily life, people get depressed because they feel as if they are not doing well enough against societal “expectations” or they get depressed because they can’t keep up financially.
Whilst some people might need to get themselves together to begin with, most of the depressed population are good people that find themselves in tough spots. And, there just not enough help for them. This means there’s a vast amount of people who are willing to graft but can’t because of hard times.
As well as a financial crisis, Covid has also given us a bubbling mental health crisis. The link between job losses and depression is obvious. Not feeling like you’re providing enough and depression are linked. It’s not about having less chmecials in your brain than everyone else (from what I can tell).
So, unless something drastically changes then its only going to get worse for all of us.
Profiting in the pandemic
In this consumerism driven world we live in, you can be sure that companies want to profit even in a pandemic and its absolutely shocking. Any chance to make that little bit more money and they’ll do it, regardless of any morals or ethics they may claim to have.
What’s with all the vitamin supplement ads that are cropping up across the TV lately? I mean, vitamins are important (in my opinion) but when these new supplement companies crop up and shove their garbage in your face it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
There’s a lot of research that obesity has a lot to do with people reacting to Covid a lot worse than those who are carrying less body fat. However, there’s never been more junk food commercials than right now. Why aren’t the government pushing the message of weight loss more? I’m more than happy to stay indoors if it means the case rates come down but surely there needs to be more regulation on junk food ads.
Everywhere you look you see one. And they’re running riot and making a killing. As we sit trapped in doors, a lot of us want to treat ourselves by getting take aways not to mention we want to get them because we can’t get to the shops. However, it some kind of cruel paradox, this is only making us worse off.
The more junk we eat, the worse we’re affected my coronavirus. Whilst people have a choice to eat healthy or not, you can’t argue that junk food is normalised in society so much that a lot of us don’t realise just how bad it is for us. It is far to engrained in daily life. It’s a crisis just as much as the mental health crisis.
I can’t help but feel like all of this is brewing into toxic depression for a lot of people. Whilst we lose more and more money from not being able to work, we’re also being bombarded with commercials telling us to shove crap down our throats.
This situation only proves to me that buying more crap that you don’t really want or don’t really need dosent make you feel any better or any fuller. Being locked in your own home makes you turn inwards and address questions that you’d never normally look at in your everyday ‘normal’ life.
Coronavis diary: depression log
I’ve written about this in a previous post but I thought it would make sense to write about it briefly in my coronavirus diary.
Whilst I haven’t lost my hob due to coronavirus or had any relatives suffer with the virus itself, I found myself hitting a low point last year during out first lockdown. It came when I was furloughed and spent at least four weeks at home doing very little.
It’s amazing how useless you feel when you don’t have to get up for anything in the morning. Long story short, I became depressed by the whole situation. Not because of the virus taking over the world but because I went into myself – a place I try not to go too often. It’s also funny how living the daily grind also distracts you from whats actually important to you.
When you’re slogging away at work 5 days a week you have little time to reflect on where you are in your life. I believe this is another reason why there is a mental health crisis brewing. It was the first time I’d stopped to really think about my life in the past 14 years, since I started working when I was sixteen.
When you’re fifteen you have nothing to do except sit in your room and think or see your friends and not stress about anything.
All of that momentum came to a sudden halt and all I was left with was my thoughts again. It’s not a comfortable place to be if you’re naturally introverted.