sense and nonsense

9th March 2020:

A day off with friends in Swindon in the great outdoors. All doctors I trained with, 2 GPs and a paediatrician. We spend much of the day talking about coronavirus, how it might affect our work, our patients, their own children, our vulnerable family members, we don’t know yet if/how much this may impact on us or our country.  Cases are here and rising. I ask advice on whether my 76 year old dad with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) should come to my husband's football game next weekend-they are playing his own team in the premier league and we planned the weekend a while ago. We all decide it’s a bad idea due to the crowds and the advice now being given, especially for older people and especially if they are vulnerable with underlying health conditions ie my old man.  As he has to travel up from Bounemouth, the same weekend we have planned to take my Aunty to the Shard and for afternoon tea in London which we got her for her 80th birthday last year. I think we need to cancel the lot of it. Shame as it’s been planned for a while, and my family being so dispersed it was going to  be lovely. But I’m not taking any chances with my loved ones. No way. I want to be ahead of the curve with my advice to them.  And these things can wait.

Now our nation has started stockpiling toilet paper and the shelves are empty!! And pasta and rice and all sorts are also sparse. My brother was right when he we were behind the curve in all this, and after looking a month ago for an online shop that might deliver toilet paper from the uk to him, I now see us following suit with Hong Kong! And when I couldn't have imagined that happening here! But is this just sheep mentality? Or panic? Or greed? Or supply and demand not ready for this behaviour, or this virus? Or maybe all of it? It’s a confusing time, but I’m still replacing feelings of worry with feeling perplexed! There aren’t enough cases here yet to bring me more worry. My work is as busy as ever, and there’s no word at my hospital regarding the state of admissions related to this virus, so either we are being kept blissfully unaware, or we just  aren’t being affected by it.  But everyday my pocket of worry is with my parents, who are 68 and 76, my dad having copd and hypertension, and my mum having a challenged immune system of unknown cause (but thankfully she continues to work fill time, and play tennis and have a full social lilfe almost full time! I’m thankful that they have both remained well.  And I need to make sure they have enough toilet paper!