Survival of the Fittest!

The Coronavirus infection is beginning to bite. One by one, European countries are entering a period of isolation and lockdown, as all their citizens are told not to leave their homes, for fear of spreading or catching the virus. Watching the television, I am shocked and saddened by the scenes I am witnessing. The World seems to be collapsing around us as stretched health services wrestle with large volumes of sick and dying people. The scenes being played out in front of our very eyes are apocalyptic in nature and will soon be repeated on the streets of Britain, as the death toll rises dramatically. News from the continent, which is now the epicentre of the pandemic is changing hour by hour, minute by minute and there appears to be no good news on the horizon. Earlier all Jet2 flights returned to the UK mid-flight as the Spanish government instigated a state of emergency. Spain is heading in the same direction as Italy and will soon become overwhelmed by the mind boggling scale of this human tragedy.

Yesterday I spoke to several friends in Gran Alacant, my old home town in Spain and began to understand just how bad this was about to get for them. My biggest fear for the amazing residents in this urbanization is their age. Many of those I knew, were elderly with complicated medical conditions, that may well be a catalyst for the Coronaviruses worst effects. It seems that this terrible virus takes the weakest in society leaving death in its wake. Our Prime Minister stated yesterday, that many more people will die, and we must expect to see heartbreaking scenes on our television sets within weeks. This is going to be the worst event in all our life times, and we must prepare ourselves for the difficulties to come!

All cities around the World are following a policy of containment, confining their populations inside their homes, preventing unnecessary travel and hoping to keep their citizens safe, until the danger passes. Here in the UK, Boris Johnson is doing the complete opposite and life in Britain is carrying on very much in the same vein as it has before. So far there are no extraordinary measures in place to slow the progress of COVID-19, except to say, people should voluntarily isolate themselves if they exhibit any symptoms. The PM wants sixty percent or more of the population to contract Coronavirus, in order to create conditions where natural immunity would follow as a matter of course. The loss of life that would result from such foolhardiness would be dramatic, possibly over a million in total. Mr Johnson is following the advice of his scientific advisors and leaving all of us exposed to this deadly virus, in a way that nobody else is. This is the actions of a madman and a person who has no empathy for the more vulnerable people in society, who will sadly die as a result of his actions; he already has blood on his hands!

These are dark days for Europe and the World, none of us know how this will pan out. My anxiety levels and mental health is holding up well, but we are only at the beginning of this sorry episode. In a few months time, I may well be in a very different place emotionally and physically. I have health concerns that make me more vulnerable to COVID-19 and coupled with my constant exposure to the public, I am at a much higher risk than most. My hope is that our Prime Minister changes his course of action and supports all of us who need it at this time, rather than exposing us to the dangers this pandemic causes. In time a vaccine will be produced, but not before many lives have been lost, until then we should be kept safe.

The powers that be, never listen to likes of me, so my voice will fall on deaf ears and Mr Johnson's survival of the fittest plan will continue. He cares only for the economy, business and the markets. By keeping Britain open as usual, he hopes to mitigate the economic disaster on the horizon. Instead, he will open the NHS to a sustained human bombardment, like it has never seen before, probably bringing it to its knees and creating a wasteland, like we have never seen before. This is going to be the hardest few months for all of us, lets hope we see each other on the other side!

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