Freedom Day?
I’ve been trying to put this post into words ever since the announcement that July 19th would bring the end of lockdown rules in England. I’ve made a few twitter posts, but totally failed to find the words I wanted, mainly due to battling ongoing chest infections, with many courses of antibiotics and longer term steroids. This is not the eloquent post I hoped for, but I can’t let it pass without a personal plea from me – though if you’re reading this you probably agree! I hope it makes some kind of sense at least.
So tomorrow in England is being lauded as Freedom Day, or step 4 of the Roadmap. Keeping 2m distance, reducing crowds and wearing face masks will no longer be required by law. All this despite covid cases rising exponentially at the moment.
But what is it actually freedom from? I would suggest from care for the other, especially the weaker and more vulnerable amongst us, freedom from a small element of sacrifice by just keeping your distance and continuing to wear a face covering indoors, freedom from doing your bit to try and keep case numbers down and who knows eventually working towards damping down the disease, freedom from taking one for the team. None of which are good freedoms to gain in my humble opinion.
Even more alarmingly, for the clinically extremely vulnerable the onus is on us
You should continue to consider the risks of close contact with others, particularly if you are clinically extremely vulnerable
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19/19-july-guidance-on-protecting-people-who-are-clinically-extremely-vulnerable-from-covid-19
Which basically means you can’t go anywhere other than close family, because how do I know? How do I know if the person in a queue in a shop has been vaccinated or not? Do people have flashing lights? How do I know where they were last weekend, who they mixed with? I don’t.
So it is back to mixing with a very small group of people, because I cannot predict how anyone else will behave. And the more I hear of people who are double vaccinated contracting covid, the less faith I have in it as the solution, especially as there is growing evidence that the vaccine may not work as well in the immunocompromised. So grateful as I am for my vaccines, they are certainly not a cast iron guarantee of being less likely to catch or even get a milder version, and yes I am worried.
So, if you care anything for your fellow human, can I beg you to not ditch face coverings inside and social distancing. Not for yourself, but the person who you may be going too close to comfort for. Because I’m afraid for me and many others like me, many potentially much more vulnerable, it may literally be a matter of life and death.
And that includes churches. It is the right thing to move at the speed of our slowest member, regardless of what our personal preferences may be.
Pam's Perambulation 