'Tories want us to pretend Covid is normal - we must keep protecting each other'
It hasn’t been the most fun week for me, as I’ve spent most of it in bed with Covid. The most disturbing part of it all for me was that I might not have realised unless I’d been prompted to test.
On Friday morning I woke up feeling exhausted, but this isn’t really anything new when you live with multiple chronic illnesses and disabilities. This usually lessens as the day goes on if I rest, but this got worse. I also started to notice things like a blocked nose and a bad head. Oh it must just be a cold or me being run down, I thought. It’d been a busy week and we’d had loads of rain in the northeast, I rationalised.
I was due to be going to a birthday party but just couldn’t find the energy so took myself for a nap hoping I’d feel better, but I woke up feeling even worse, my whole body ached. It was then I saw a text from a friend saying they’d just tested positive for COVID and their main symptoms felt like a bad cold. I hadn’t been in contact with them but something in my mind clicked. Sure enough that second line appeared.
In the last couple of weeks, the new variant Eris has been slowly spreading, with experts saying we’re at the beginning of a new wave. As the virus has mutated, the symptoms have changed, this time around there are fewer chest pains and coughs, with my main signs being sniffles and headaches. The exhaustion however has gotten much worse, bone-crushingly tired, as has the brain fog - it’s taken me five days to write this. With most variants a big clue is losing your sense of taste and smell, this isn’t as prevalent here - but everything does taste absolutely rubbish.
'Second line appeared on Covid test' (stock image) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)The day before I tested I sent a text to my family asking if everyone else’s water tasted weird. I kick myself thinking about this now. While this variant is so far not seeming as deadly, it has the potential to spread more than others, because of how little is stopping it. When Omicron started to spread, we did our best to stop it. Instructions to mask, keep our distance and ventilate were back in force, but this time it almost seems like we’re doing our best to ignore it.
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Rolling our eyes and going “Well we’ve just got to live with it” - after all it is what the government has been telling us for the past few years. The government guidance doesn’t even say that you must stay home if you have it any more, the phrasing is “try and stay home”. Though I suppose when the then prime minister couldn’t even follow his own guidance at the height of the pandemic, we can’t expect much.
This isn’t something we’ve all come to our own conclusions on though, it’s a result of mixed, confusing messaging and a rush for the Tories to get on top of this for their gain, minimising the impact of the issues by giving the people the freedom they took away from them in the first place. Whilst lockdowns seemed like the worst possible times, we must never forget that they could have been avoided if the government had acted sooner. That the endless summer into winter tiers could’ve been so much less if the Tories focused on the areas that needed it, instead of only acting when it hit London. If they’d prioritised saving our loved ones and doing the most to protect the vulnerable, there would’ve been significantly fewer deaths and 6 in 10 of those deaths might not have been disabled people, who were deemed disposable.
And the government conditioned us to be sick of Covid precautions. We saw the “pingdemic” as a huge inconvenience that stopped us all from working - when we should've been worried about the spike in cases and the government withdrawing furlough and paid leave. The constant messaging labelling disabled people as “vulnerable” allowed them to brush the huge disabled death toll under the carpet so everyone could get back to pubs and restaurants. But it ignored the huge amount of people who are newly disabled by the virus.
We’re moving into a harsh autumn and winter, where many will struggle more than ever as a result of this government’s actions, but it also means many won’t be focusing on their own health or able to take time off work. That’s why it’s devastating that booster jabs won't be offered to anyone under 65 or “vulnerable”. In the winter I’m due my 7th vaccine, most non-disabled people I know have only had 3 or 4 at an absolute max. We can’t proclaim herd immunity whilst not immunising people.
We’ve been conditioned as a country to just get on with it, that's something British people are very good at. And at a time when some of us can barely afford rent or food, illnesses are something we think we should just suck up and not complain about. The Tories want to act like the pandemic is over because it won't affect them - the long-term impacts of Covid have devastated individuals and communities. Like everything else, the government are banking on us to just get on with it, but we must protect each other.
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