Firstly, it is, obviously, fairly serious. 4000 of the most seriously affected Italians are now unable to confirm that, being now dead.
Next, it seems that some people are very sensitive to the virus (not just old people) and others aren't, and nobody knows why yet. But we do know that the seriousness of infection is very much increased by age, chronic respiratory conditions and immune system weakness, so the lovely Jackie (62 and asthmatic) would definitely be better off not getting it.
And so we find ourselves in the self-isolating vulnerable category, hunkering down for a stay-at-home that might last for - what, maybe a year or more? It seems that we are not alone though - others are also feeling the urge to hunker. In the spirit of social distancing, I tried Morrisons' click-and-collect-from-the-car-park service: the next available slot for collection was a week away, and half the items we wanted are out of stock anyway. So I just went to our local mega-Tesco instead. Here's the white wine section:
Really? White wine? I didn't realise it was that serious.
In fairness, the red wine section looked like this:
So I suppose that's fair. They were also completely out of organic milk, and any sort of bread, and eggs, which does suggest that people have either been stocking up for something, or preparing for a massive bread pudding festival that I haven't heard about because it's only been advertised on the dark web.
I had just scan-as-you-shopped my third packet of toilet cistern blocks (making a meagre six blocks in total) when a public address announcement told me that to ensure fair play for all, customers were only to be allowed to buy two of any item! I fully expected to be stopped at the checkout and charged with hoarding (or possibly billboard) but it seems they haven't quite got that rule into the scan-as-you-shop software yet, so I got away with it. Phew!
Fortunately, artichoke hearts and stuffed olives were still available, so it looks as if we will be OK for a while. I successfully held my breath for the entire trip, degreased my hands in boiling acetone before I got back into in the car, and showered in Dettol when I got home, so I'm hoping we got away with it. My coat got quarantined outside on the terrace for the afternoon, but it's not showing any symptoms so we've let it back into the house now. And since you can't get bread yeast anywhere - not even for ready money - I've just started my first ever sourdough starter.
Still, it might not be that bad. It's possible that the arrival of warmer weather might change the course of the pandemic for the better, and we'll all be free to go back to worrying about flooding, deforestation, habitat loss, catastrophic insect population decline, plastic waste, toxic pollution, ocean acidification, ozone layer depletion (again), global water shortages, antibiotic resistance, methane and anthrax coming out of the permafrost (all of which are still actually happening). Not to mention nuclear accidents and human overpopulation. Or, for the far-sighted, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, "gray goo" and autonomous killing robots.
Or Brexit.
Even if we make it through 2020 unscathed, it seems we should still expect a repeat performance, at least every winter, unless we get an effective vaccine. I wonder which choice the anti-vaccine people will make?
However. History suggests that things never turn out as badly as I imagine they might. In this case, that observation doesn't seem as comforting as it usually does, but it's the best I've got. As ever, we'll just have to wait and see what happens. It probably won't be what you expect. Meanwhile, I'll see you on WhatsApp (if at all).
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