Coronavirus streets in Manchester - LXX

Falling temperatures and rising prices

It is 3⁰C outside as I looked at my smartwatch, so I prepared to go shopping wearing thermals underneath, a jumper and a coat with a hat to keep me warm. As I stepped out, I realised I needed a mask too, the balaclava one that I could wear around my neck and pull up to cover my mouth and nose when going into the shop.

The usuals have gone up by 10 to 15 per cent, somehow, I still have an idea of what the prices were maybe a year ago or even two, a mental note that just reveals itself as a significant difference. Sometimes, I shirk at the thought, and a voice of consternation goes off in my head, “I am not paying that much for this.”

Boosting from a hosting

My visit to the hospital just over a week ago also informs me that you do not want to put yourself at any risk as we enter the 4^th year of the pandemic, and the truth is it has not gone. People coming in from China would need to present a negative COVID-19 test to travel to many locations, in the US, a homegrown variant with the ability to evade the protections we have relied on, threatens.

For instance, I took my 3^rd booster shot just over 3 weeks ago and that is 5 vaccine injections altogether, 3 of Pfizer/BioNTech Comirnaty, the fourth of Moderna Spikevax and the last of Pfizer/BioNTech Comirnaty bivalent jab. Yet, hardly anyone wears a mask even as I have been doing for the past month in the church too. I guess those from the Far East as China, South Korea, and Japan who have had Coronavirus and SARs incidents are the ones to be seen donning face masks.

No one wants to sit for 9 hours to see a doctor and those who needed beds were on gurneys for hours, the NHS has been hit with a capacity and resource issue and this along with the industrial dispute has no prospect of a resolution in the near future.

You just never know

I overheard one conversation in the shop, a colleague was asking another if she had children and she answered three. The follow-up question was about how old they were; I thought she might just have a teenager and two younger ones. Well, the youngest was 26 and the older two were already in their thirties. I had to say, you can’t have a youngest of 26 when you do not even look 28.

Appearances are always deceptive in the many guises we encounter in looks or even in knowing who might have contracted the Coronavirus and is out there amongst people, careless and carefree of the danger they pose to others. Whatever you see on the streets, the authorities intend that we live with this virus and are withdrawing the data that might keep us informed of trends and concerns.

It is everyone for themselves and in that, one should take the best advice and protect oneself by avoiding enclosed spaces and crowds, wearing masks and still having hand sanitiser handy. Eternal vigilance remains the price of our liberty to be free of all infirmity related to the Coronavirus.