Doing The Right Thing Is Tough: It’s all gone on a bit but it looks likely, that by doing the right thing and following the guidelines, that the UK self isolation policy is beginning to work. It’s not a quick process but there is evidence that, by staying at home and reducing face to face contacts, virus transmission has been reduced.
By playing our part we are all taking some of the pressure off the doctors and nurses in our NHS and buying time for the scientists who are working on a vaccine.
They all want us to stay at home.
Where Are We Heading: It’s quite reasonable to look to the future. How on earth do we get out of this? How will life look as the lockdown is relaxed? I think it’s too early to say for sure but.…
Something that I am sure of is that the patience that we’ve learned by staying isolated will be required into the future. Those restrictions that we’ve accepted. Those skills that we have developed. The rituals of hygiene washing hands and handles, wearing gloves and face coverings, I.T. based socialising and the meerkat like alertness on social distance, those skills are going to be required for a longtime as normality slowly seeps back into our lives. These are the new life skills that will keep us safe .
The NHS Is Still There For You: I know that hardly anybody fancies going to hospital or even to the doctors at the moment. It seems safer to stay away. It seems, at first glance, best for the NHS staff and safer for us if we just stay away, but that’s just wrong! Significant numbers of people are suffering unnecessarily or, in some cases, dying of treatable conditions because they’re not going for their tests, their treatment or calling the ambulance when they rely need them.
Pandemics kill by infection but, overtime, the suffering and loss caused by undiagnosed conditions and missed treatments for known conditions really adds up and can be as bad as the effects of the disease we’re all focused on. Don’t let Covid 19 win by the backdoor.
If you need the NHS for any health issue, they’re there for you.
Wendover Spirit: I’m also hopeful that the community spirit that Wendover has found to stand up to Covid 19 will continue long after the virus is done. It’s a measure of a great community when it looks after it’s own and that’s a great lesson for all of us to take forward. My hope is that people will continue to work with the Parish Council long after the all clear is sounded and the we can harness the Wendover Spirit and make our community even better.
Tom Walsh
Chairman of Wendover Parish Council