Coping with Covid

 Image: SA Health /Facebook

When the going gets tough, Adelaide goes to the supermarket. It has not let up since Christmas. There is normally the Christmas rush, a lull then it builds up for Easter again. My local supermarkets are always busy and staff tell me there is rarely a quiet time. What are we doing with all this supermarket haul? I am shopping as I have always shopped. I haven't changed. Are people stockpiling? Comfort eating? Staying at home more and so needing more at home more often? Are they cooking more for themselves? Shopping for others who have Covid?

I do not get the impression we are overweight. In fact, I'd say we are pretty fitness conscious at the moment. In the local area people walk their dogs, their children, walk with their friend or are walking in a group. Some are walking alone. This year there has been lots of walking. Not strolling. A good, solid walk at a good pace. So  why all this supermarket  shopping?

People are sharing ideas as to how to cope too. Some have just been going along quietly and following safe practices. Others are out and about and going off on local trips. Some are attending events. On a regular basis we hear of more getting Covid. Whole families. They approach it logically and sensibly but it is not fun . They get good help from SA Health and they get good help from friends, family and neighbours. Haven't yet heard of anyone just being left to get on with it. Maybe because they can't tell anyone? A lot of people mask up their children and we have kept our masks on because they work. 

It then seems weird to live in a country , and world, where a virus is just left to spread. I grew up in an age where there was polio, diphtheria, rheumatic heart fever, measles, scarlet fever. I was there when the vaccines and good medical practices were being developed. I missed the bit where children had to be hospitalised because of scarlet fever and I had it twice. Once with measles. I was three. My parents cared for me at home and a doctor home visited. They followed what he said. At school I was with children in leg irons and who were sickly from rheumatic heart fever. That experience taught me that not everyone is well all the time. At no point did we let disease spread. As soon as vaccines arrived we had them. We were given bottles of milk and medicine, not disease. 

It was good, then, to hear the press conference this morning which included information about schools. It was done in a very reassuring way for parents, especially, but was very clear about the guidelines for teachers and teaching staff so that everyone had a Covid safe plan. I grew up at a time when everyone did the right thing because it was the right thing to do. Military precision. People have become the options and choices people now. They want to make their own choices. The pandemic has taught us we have to operate as a cohesive group to get success. We cope with those who don't want vaccines by making good health choices for everyone. If they get Covid , and survive,  they will have antibodies. If they spread Covid more easily, as has been said, then we have to look at what they are doing so the social distancing and clean air  is there. The old are dying from covid, not so much the young, so we have to protect older people and we have to protect the under 5s. Clear press conferences help to explain decisions and the conference was firm but fair. 

We had just about five and a half thousand cases today. We have to change this and our behaviour. It is not logical or sane to let disease spread unchecked. It is a lunatic way to go about living. It does not make sense to let Covid spread and offer a legacy of long Covid, constant illness and reinfection, sick households. It will be debilitating and will create so many more problems besides Covid. Common sense and mitigation have to prevail . Talking people  clearly through this has to continue.