Lockdown Again

Reuters…

Hortense: One case? And she locks the country down? To Level 4?

Phyllis: Well, I don’t mind it. 

Hortense: Hmm. I need to go out every day. But maybe I’m just being selfish.

Phyllis: Maybe you are.

Hortense: And how about getting to a doctor? Or getting care in residential homes? They’re short of staff and overworked with no migrant workers allowed, so patients are left unattended for hours.

Phyllis: Well, I think she’s doing a good job.

Hortense: You don’t think there’s an element of ruling by fear, or political posturing for public relations? 

_________

Voice-over

Laudable as the approach to containing a pandemic may be, locking a country down, shutting businesses, and deploying police to catch transgressors, seems a bit heavy-handed. And simplistic. She could have had a Plan B like getting vaccines ready. How do we cope with anxieties, like claustrophobia, and no help for other things? There are more health issues than the pandemic. There is more to life than going into lockdown and becoming a mollusc state. A country of “diversity” needs more than a leader embarked on a public relations stunt.