Thoughts on Corona Virus

Shut up, Ciara! some of you are shouting. We don't want to hear about a pandemic?! It's far too scary.

I know. I'm a slave to science. If the facts are pointing in a certain direction, I, for one, need to get through the, 'Oh, My God' moment and brace myself; like a cold-water swimmer diving into the North Sea. We can't ignore the raw data. We have to join the dots.

Anxiety, of course, does not help. But maybe prepared-ness does. A tiny bit? 

When people say - It's no worse than flu and it's all blown out of proportion, I want to argue that science is saying something very different. Luckily, @hannahdev has done it for me in this short article on myth-busting on the Corona Virus. 

Last night, my daughter kept asking me to plan her birthday party in a trampoline park. There are no cases in Scotland (as I type) but cases in Europe are almost doubling by the day. If it gets here, a trampoline park with hundred of kids is not where I think we should be. I was stalling her birthday pleas, while trying to sound upbeat. It felt sad.

The UK government have already floated the possibility that schools and offices *might* have to close for weeks, if cases rise rapidly. The Easter holiday we booked is certainly hanging in the balance.

In the middle of all this, I'm finding it hard to write. So I'm writing this blog instead. Usually, it's an upbeat, 'overcoming illness and adversity' blog but I am afraid of the pandemic, now openly discussed by scientists. I'm not afraid of admitting fear. I don't feel the need to throw some upbeat spin on it, or brush it under a Lego-strewn carpet.

I feel we're going to need all the humanity we can get. We're going to need to work together as communities and I can't quite believe what I'm seeing, while, at the same time, feeling it is exactly what has been predicted for decades. It's true science in action. You can't argue with nature. So, don't argue. Listen. We've got a lot of listening to do.