The Pandemic Unfolded

So, it has been a year. And what a year it has been.

A year ago we had no idea what was coming. None of us were ready.

A year ago much of the population across the globe became obsessed with toilet paper and other essential items. Stripping grocery shelves bare within minutes.

Our understanding and realisation manifested as facts were uncovered – but not as quickly as the virus spread.

Countries which should have been well prepared for an event such as we were facing turned out to be amongst the least prepared. Whether it was through lack of preparation, poor assessment of the situation, bad advice, a lack of understanding about pandemics or by those in power being deniers of the facts or not having the ability to grasp the basics about epidemiology, citizens of many countries faced challenges, losses and illness which will have irrevocably changed their world. Some countries acted quickly, others did not. Some changed their thoughts from one action to the other. Closing borders, opening borders, not allowing travel, encouraging travel – to their detriment. 

It was difficult to watch.

It was just as difficult to watch the ridiculous panic buying and hoarding behaviours, the protests about being told to stay home or wear a mask. Common sense does not prevail for us all in these times.

Thousands of people lost their jobs as industries ground to a halt, or at least a go slow. Plane spotting was an event, not an everyday occurrence. Businesses rewrote their business plans overnight or in a week to adapt to the changing restrictions about gathering in numbers, social distancing and many managed to stay afloat. Parents became teachers and work from home orders saw office supplies and computer gear vanish off shelves as quick as toilet paper as everyone set up their home office.

We couldn’t go anywhere so we became tourists online, touring palaces, museums and art galleries. People in the arts bought their art to our homes, we watched ballet, musicals and concerts filmed in the artists home and beamed into ours. Some of us are still doing that. Conferences became virtual, meetings were held on Zoom. We learnt new skills, knitting, crochet, painting, baking. For a lot of us it was a chance to catch up on things we kept putting off because work and busy lives have a tendency to take over our free time.

We have been lucky down here in the far removed countries of Australia and New Zealand. While at times it felt like we were losing control we did not experience the depths of despair seen on our television screens in Europe, Britain, United States and South America.

A year ago I began this blog series intent on making monthly updates, but they have fallen by the way side as life returned to some sense of normality here AND I got a job. Not as much spare time as I’d become used to – but the financial benefits far outweigh that.

So here are some sobering facts as we all either celebrate that we have had one of our two vaccinations, or have had both, or wait for our turn as our countries roll out their vaccination plans.

123,000,000 people globally have been diagnosed with COVID-19,

69,500,000 people have recovered and

2,710,000 have died. 

The worst affected country is

United States of America with 29,800,000 cases and 541,000 deaths, then

Brazil 12,000,000 cases, 10,500,00 recovered and 293,000 deaths

India 11,600,00 cases, 11,100,00 recovered and 160,000 deaths

Russia 4,400,000 cases, 4,010,000 recovered and 93,090 deaths

United Kingdom 4,290,000 cases and 126,000 deaths

France 4,250,000 cases and 92,167 deaths

In our corner of the world

Australia has recorded 29, 192 cases, 25,486 recovered and 909 deaths and

New Zealand 2,453 cases, 2369 recovered and 26 deaths

Mostly new cases in Australia and New Zealand are occurring in Managed Isolation Quarantine facilities amongst citizens returning to the country for overseas. The total number of citizens returning to both countries is nearing 50,000 since the pandemic was declared. Outbreaks in the community are dealt with swiftly by imposing stricter travel restrictions, short focussed lockdowns, more social distancing regulations and wearing masks.

There is a visual timeline which I have referred to many times during the past twelve months which shows the speed and spread of the virus and the changing fortunes of the ten most affected countries. currently it is updated to February 21, 2021, you will need to scroll down the page a bit to find it. It is both mesmerising and horrifying.

The “travel the country”, “holiday at home” messages have been hard to take when such uncertainty prevails in Australia with each state declaring its own path to recovery and its own way of managing outbreaks. We have looked with envy at our Kiwi mates who have freely travelled and holidayed within their country since lockdown 1.0 ended in the middle of the year.

Now though, it feels as if a travel bubble will finally open and we will be able to travel with strict guidelines between both countries. Real international travel though, I fear, will not recommence until at least mid 2022 if not 2023 – and I would expect that being fully vaccinated will be a requirement.

We have new words and phrases embedded in our vocabularies and for the most part we have adapted to our new normal. In some respects while it was confronting to watch it all play out on our screens everyday in real time, in other ways it was helpful to see how every country worked together. How our medical people rose to the challenge to find a vaccine – at least three – in such a short time. How a kindness pandemic spread around the globe at the same time, as we all showed support for each other and respect for our frontline healthcare workers. How we all learnt something new about ourselves and realised the lessons to be learned from history – because pandemics are not new, and this one will not be the last. 

Many of us will have been surprised to learn that Charlotte Bronte and Charles Dickens wrote about epidemics in Jane Eyre and Bleak House promoting isolation and social distancing as a means to keep other safe. Despite our many misgivings about technology taking over our lives and the difficulty many of us have about disconnecting from our digital devices to have a digital detox, having this technology has enabled us to be much more informed that our ancestors were about previous pandemics. Let’s not forget the lessons we have learned and make an effort to keep them with us and to pass them on to future generations.

Wash Your Hands. Shelter At Home. Wear a Mask. Do it for the ones you love.