Q&A: England's Covid-19 lock down 2.0, here we go again

Hi guys, I'm sure you've all heard that England like so many other countries in Europe are going back into lockdown as of this Thursday (5 November), so I decided to do a quick Q&A to deal with some of the issues around this latest lockdown. 

Q: Why did you say 'England' rather than UK? 

A: This is because the current rules for this lockdown apply only to England; because we have devolved regional governments, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland get to make their own rules based on their local situations which could be quite different from England's. For example, Wales has done their own lockdown (known as the 'firebreak') and it lasted from 23rd October to the 9th November so they decided to lock down early before the situation got worse; life will return to normal on the 9th November in Wales whilst we must wait till at least the 2nd December for that to happen. 

Q: What is the mood locally in London now?

A: There are mixed emotions - firstly, many of us were in denial about a second lockdown but in hindsight, it was inevitable. But since the summer, life did return to some kind of normalcy: we were meeting our friends, we could go shopping, we were going to restaurants, working out at the gym, going on holiday - doing all kinds of things that were forbidden during the first lockdown. But when you looked at the infection figures since the second week of September going from 2,000 of new cases a day to over 20,000 a day, then in hindsight, we could've seen this coming - a spike in infection figures was going to lead to an increase in the number of Covid-19 related hospitalizations and subsequently deaths. Back in the summer, we had as little as two people a day dying of Covid-19 and now we have a few hundreds a day - without any action, that number was expected to increase up to a few thousands a day as the hospitals become totally overwhelmed. Nobody wants to see a few thousand people dying a day but unfortunately, the price to pay for that is to go back into a total lockdown - which is frustrating for everyone involved especially since we don't know if it would be lifted on the 2nd December. The situation in Wales seems to inspire confidence but the problem is that the government has chosen to keep the schools open which is utterly ridiculous and renders the whole lockdown ineffective. 

Q: Why are you against the schools staying open then? 

A:  The students are going to infect each other in the classroom due to ineffective social distancing - the schools are not designed for social distancing and when you see these students after school, they have zero concept of social distancing. The general perception is that young people don't suffer even if they get Covid-19, they are mostly asymptomatic so they don't mind or care if they get sick. But the problem is that these students get infected, feel absolutely fine, then go home and give it to their parents and grandparents, that's how the older, more vulnerable adults and end up very ill. The only way to make sure you stop the transmission is to make sure these students are not given a chance to mingle in the schools and infect each other - that's the only way a proper lockdown would have the desired effect. The fact is many poorer families live in very small homes where there's just no way to shield the grandparents effectively from the grandchildren if the grandchildren get infected at school. So you have a choice - do you want to ensure that the elderly folks in poorer families are protected from Covid-19 or do you want to prioritize the education of the students? You can't have both - the government is being naive to think that you can actually have both when that's not possible so that's why we're all going to be greatly inconvenienced by this second lockdown but loads more people are still going to die because of the situation in the schools. So either do a proper lockdown and shut down all the schools or keep everything open and save the economy - so this wishy-washy second lockdown will serve little purpose.

Q: Why have some countries been hit so hard by a second wave but not others?

A: I had been talking to a friend in Hong Kong who told me that they have not had any new deaths in ages and usually less than ten new cases a day. That is very similar to the situation in Singapore as well and both countries have clearly not experienced a second wave as seen in Europe. I am not a medical professional but I think that there are three key factors: firstly, we never really got rid of the first wave. Infection numbers did fall significantly in the warmer summer months but it was not like it was close to being eradicated - once autumn came and the weather got colder, infection rates skyrocketed; the only way that could have been prevented would be if the first lock down was so strict that we actually eradicated the virus from the country. Now it is obvious that this is not the case in any European country and they are all facing a significant second wave - even Germany which was praised for handling the pandemic with German efficiency is still suffering a second wave. No, you need Chinese Communist control, not just German efficiency, to deal with this virus - look at the way China managed to test whole cities like Qingdao (population 9 million) and Kashgar (population 1 million) the moment they detected a few cases - Qingdao is about the same size as London for crying out aloud. So the second factor is that to deal with a pandemic, you need an authoritarian regime able to snap their fingers and shut everything down just like the way they did in China. You also need a compliant population like in Singapore who are willing to follow the rules. We have neither of those in Europe! Take a simple issue like wearing a mask: everyone in Singapore will wear a mask the moment they leave their homes. I don't like masks but I comply. Only about 60% to 70% of the people in the UK actually comply with the rules about wearing masks in public places like train stations and shops. 

Then of course, in the northern hemisphere, we're approaching winter - I can see on my weather app that it will fall to 0 degrees in London on Wednesday night, our first taste of frost this winter. It is already November and that means that people tend to socialize indoors more rather than outdoors - it has also been a pretty wet autumn and that means people opting to meet their friends indoors in places such as pubs. The combination of the colder weather and students returning to school and university means that this is usually flu season - everyone can get winter flu even though they may not have any underlying conditions. I remember when I got the winter flu during my first winter in London, I went to see the doctor and the doctor just said, "it isn't serious at all, this isn't meningitis - just go home and get loads of sleep, you'll be fine in a few days." I didn't even get any prescription medicine, I was just told to take some aspirin or paracetamol if I felt really rough. In January 2019, I got a really bad bout of the winter flu when I was Georgia and did feel really rough then, for over a week I kept running a high temperature from the time I arrived in Tbilisi and that was only halfway through my trip - that was the last time I had a really bad case of the flu. I'm not saying that cold weather will automatically make you fall sick; however, you're far more likely to catch something like the flu when the weather is cold. You can also get the flu too during the summer or in a hot country, but we are now facing the double whammy of winter flu + Covid-19 and we're in uncharted waters here, nobody knows how bad it is going to be but we're all expecting it to be a recipe for disaster. Winter flu season really only starts in December, it will take a few weeks for the winter flu to spread in the community, for many people to get ill - thus we are still a month away from when the shit is really going to hit the ceiling fan in a big way. 

Q: How has this affected you personally? 

A: I get so frustrated talking to my family in Singapore about this because for them, as long as I'm not dying of Covid-19 I must be 100% fine. Covid-19 is more than just a virus that makes people sick - it is a pandemic that has ripped apart our society and way of life, it has made 2020 the most difficult year ever for most people. I think there's an element of frustration because I do want my social life to go on, I do want to be able to see my friends and enjoy activities like going to the gymnastics club for training or going shopping. I am still in denial right now, I'm arranging activities to fill my few hours until the lockdown begins. I went out to get Japanese food today whilst I still can and I can compare this to getting an injection. Nobody likes injections but I think dreading the moment the needle goes in is far worse than the injection itself - I've gone through one lock down earlier this year, I can do this again. I think dreading the Thursday deadline - the start of the second lock down - is going to be far worse than whatever Thursday can bring. The irony is that I'm doing all these things that I supposedly enjoy but at the back of my mind, I keep thinking, "I won't be able to do this after Wednesday night." I am spending a lot more on myself, buying fancy little treats (such as fancy ice creams and going to restaurants) because I keep thinking there'll be nothing to spend money on during the lock down, so I may as well treat myself whilst I can. I suppose I am grateful that I am still able to work from home during the lock down and I shall just use this period to try to focus my energy on my job, to be as productive as I can be. When life gives you lemons, the only sensible thing to do is to make lemonade rather than protest that you would have rather had peaches or grapes instead and I'm pretty good when it comes to being very pragmatic and sensible. Is there any alternative to that? I don't think so. 

The fact is I have been semi retired for the last few years - I work freelance, chalking up anything from 15 to 25 hours a week, leaving me with plenty of time to do sports, have an active social life and get loads of beauty sleep. On top of that, I spent between a quarter to a third of my time on holiday, traveling a lot. Now that we're going into lockdown again - the gym is closed, I'm not supposed to see my friends, I can't have a social life and I most certainly can't go traveling any time soon. It's like I'm being forced back into full time employment because working from home is really all I can do right now. It's not like I have much of a choice in the matter since there is a lock down. Do I miss life before Covid-19? You bet I do because life was sweet - earning good money despite working only part time, being already semi-retired in my 40s and always looking forward to the next exciting trip abroad. But that's just not what 2020 is offering me right now, I must be grateful for what I do have: the opportunity to work full time from the comfort and safety of my living room, that I am in a position to be productive even from home. What I am promising myself is that when I do travel again, I will spend more money on luxury travel options to make up for the fact that I have been unable to travel for much of 2020. In the meantime, I'm watching a lot of travel documentaries, I'm quite fond of the many travel series presented by Simon Reeve where he goes to some of the world's most exotic countries and it is a mix of investigative journalism meets travel programme: when he went to Bangladesh, he reported on child labour and the plight of children as young as four years old having to work to help their families put food on the table. Through the power of the internet, I am still traveling with my mind through such programmes and feeling connected with the wider world out there. I am also further reminded that there are many people who are struggling during this pandemic and I should be grateful that I am financially very stable. 

Q: Is there any panic buying as witnessed in the first lockdown? 

A: Thankfully no, not that I have observed so far. Most people are still reasonably calm for now. Fingers crossed. I was out in town last night having dinner in Soho - all the restaurants and bars were very packed because many people want to get one last night out before everything shuts down for a whole month - so there was a part of me that thought, "surely this is going to spread the virus even more, if you have a few days of so many people around England partying like this."

Q: Are there any crazy conspiracy theories you've heard this time about the lockdown 2.0?

A:Well if you want crazy theories here's one: it claims that Boris Johnson was very reluctant to impose a lockdown because he is deliberately killing off Labour voters - the people who die of Covid-19 are likely to be poor and of ethnic minority (with the exception of Chinese and other East Asians). People who tick these boxes are unlikely to be Tory voters anyway - poor people and the BAME voters tend to be more left wing. But this isn't even about trying to change the demographics of the voters by getting rid of some Labour voters, it is about money: poor people are a drain on the state, they ask for all kinds of benefits, welfare payments, housing benefits - their children get all kind of free stuff when they go to school because they are poor. Poor people pay little or no taxes but receive a lot more benefits from the state. Rich people pay a lot of taxes but receive very little in return. What if there was a virus that killed off some of those poor people who are a financial burden on the state and somehow didn't really affect the rich as much? Poor people are far more likely to get the virus because they live in poor quality accommodation, often having to share small houses/apartments with many family members, so if one family member gets infected, the infection will spread rapidly through the household. Poor people are also far more likely to work in jobs (delivery, public transport, supermarkets, fast food restaurants etc) where they have to come into contact with many members of the public, hence increasing their chances of getting Covid-19. Thus this theory believes that the government is gladly letting the virus run rampage through the country, getting rid of some of these poor people because you can't castrate the poor and stop them from breeding - they believe the death toll is so high in the UK because the government wants many more poor people to die.

Okay, so that's it from me on this topic for now, stay safe - leave a comment below please and many thanks for reading.