The virus previously known as Corona

It’s a pretty thing, a corona; a crown, an ethereal cloud formation, a chandelier with flickering candles.

A virus.

And this virus is ugly-beautiful under the microscope but deadly to many. In theory, I fall into the ‘at risk’ group - an older woman, with an immune suppressant illness controlled by medication. I’m doing the best I can neither to catch it (much hand washing and general avoidance of PDAs - not that I routinely snog people) or to over-worry about it. I have a friend who is telling me repeatedly that we should be more worried, which I find an interesting approach. Worry is just the anticipation of something you don’t want to happen, so why bring it into your life now when it may never happen - and if it does, all the worrying will have done is wreck your peace of mind and sleep, and make it harder to fight the disease? So, no, I’m not going to worry.

Like all events, Covid-19 is bringing out the extremes in human behaviour, and - health professionals apart - it’s not been especially heartening. Shelves being stripped bare of loo roll against an illness that does not cause the runs, dried foods being stock-piled so that the greedy and selfish can barricade themselves in whilst those unable to either reach the shops or spend above a weekly limit are left to do what? To go without? To venture out when they might need to stay in? To starve, lying in their own shit?

We are all truly in this together. The person next to you is as vital to your well-being as you are to her. The more we care for the health and care of our neighbours, the safer we will be. If we took our focus away from protecting ourselves beyond basic cleanliness (which seems to be a rarity to a surprising amount of people, who knew?), and instead focussed on protecting everyone around us, we’d all be safer.

Its called community care. Try it.