With the 24-hour news cycle dominated by Covid-19 it is easy to look at the healthy presenters and not really consider the impact of such news on those deemed as vulnerable, nor their thoughts.
I am one of those categorised as high-risk as a result of Type 2 Diabetes. My father is 89, and thus is also high-risk.
My partner works in a customer facing role in a retail environment.With the prospect of the Government ordering those in the high-risk category – sorry ‘advising’ – to self-isolate many of us will be forced into difficult decisions.
My father only gets out of the house when I visit to take him shopping, do some bets, or collect his pension.
As someone without a device to go online he cannot, nor should he be expected to, do online shopping. While he has good neighbours who would willingly, if able, do some shopping, the benefits of chatting to me and his grandson for half-an-hour for his mental health are immeasurable.
In contrast to images of Italian citizens keeping morale high with communal singing and exercising on balconies it is a little more difficult when living in a semi-detached house in a cul-de-sac in north Belfast.
I’m pretty sanguine about having to self-isolate as I work from home anyway, but the impact on pensioners has not really been considered. Nor has their ability to prepare. Will they remember to order their prescriptions? Will they be able to buy enough food to last through any Government-imposed period indoors?
Or, as one pensioner asked me ‘Will I be arrested if I go down to the shop?’
Such concerns may seem exaggerated, or even hyperbole in the extreme. But for a moment transport yourself into the mind of a pensioner watching the news, reading the newspapers, or listening to the radio and hearing a figure of not a week, but potentially two-plus months isolated.
Yet, there has been little consideration in the statements to the care needs of over-70s, whether it is through relatives or neighbours helping with shopping, or care workers visiting to help with meals and hygiene.
It all seems as if while the science has been rightly considered and thought through the real needs of people have not.
Yes, as a society we wish to arrest the spread of Covid-19, and yes every fatality is a tragedy but a dystopian world where parents and grandparents are left depressed and alone cannot be allowed to happen. A world where the deaths of pensioners could become the acceptable cost of Government action cannot be allowed to happen.
For now I’m heading down to my father’s house with my son. We’ll chat, go down the road to get him his pension and take him to the bookies.
Then I’ll go home, buy some beers and contemplate where we will be in 14 weeks time.
Photo Credit: Pete Linforth from Pixabay