Time to plan for lifting the lockdown...

....the Great Crisis In The Health Service  has been avoided as people have locked down, and done all that they were told to do. There are now empty beds in the new Nightingale Hospital, and in the other hospitals that were alerted for a Coronavirus crisis.  Even if things do peak, the NHS can now cope.

So it is time to start lifting the lockdown.

I don't need to be told about what it's like caring for the sick, as I have been spending time doing that.  I do need to tell people that most sufferers from the coronavirus will not need to go to hospital, and  that the few who do can now be assured that beds are ready.  The worry now is that the decisions that need to be made will not be made, because of a fear of a public and media-scented backlash...after weeks of being told to stay at home, and of obeying, people now feel that's the only thing to do...and some won't like the idea of facing the next challenge. But it can't be put off for ever...we must now accept that there is going to be a tough time as we start to return to work and rebuild our community networks. We must get on and help one another.

I am getting rather tired of well-do-do people in comfortable homes with gardens writing about the joys of listening to birdsong and appreciating long hours of reading and relaxing., and saying that the lockdown is really rather fun.   What about people stuck on the 14th floor of a concrete block of flats with no garden? Young people facing a jobless future?  People seeing their life's work and family security draining away? Lonely people - there are so many - who need more than just some telephone calls? And all the community networks that make for civilisation: schools, colleges, choirs,  clubs, sports,  societies with their talks and projects, churches, evening classes, youth groups, hobby groups...and much, much  more...