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I meant to add that, due to Covid19, I (along with other members of my organisation) have all been told to work from home. I am in complete support of this instruction however, whilst I have (for many years) worked from home every Friday, it is socially isolating to work from home every working day. The chatting to colleagues as one makes tea in the kitchen is nice. However some things are, when all is said and done much easier face-to-face. I am no luddite as my work entails a lot of use of the computer. Likewise my poetry is all done on my laptop. However technology has its limits.

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Whilst I am sure that social distancing and/or social isolation is necessary for the time being, we need to be incredibly careful that COVID19 (and the measures taken to combat it) do not break down the invisible bonds of trust and common humanity which hold the social fabric together.

Talking to friends online, via Teams etc is all well and good, but there is no substitute for the warmth and good fellowship which flows from genuine (face-to-face) interaction.

Whilst no sane person wants to give (or be given) Corona, most people don’t want to be stuck at home for most of their lives interacting online.

There is also the issue of dating. Apart from love there is, of course the perpetuation of the species which requires getting up close and personal so there, obviously comes a point when we have to trust others not to infect us with Covid19. For those already in relationships that is relatively simple, however for those not in coupledom, such people will need to trust others for obvious reasons.

Turning to technology, whilst use of self check-outs may help to combat the infection, someone would, I assume need to clean the terminals on an ongoing basis. Even if the terminal hasn’t been physically touched by the shopper, their card (if they are infected) may come into contact with the check-out and thereby pass on infection. Again an infected person may, accidenttally brush against a self-check out thereby passing on Corona. So technology has its limits. Granted, many people have smartphones but we are a very long way from the day when the majority of people will be paying for items using their smartphones. I use my debit card a lot, but there have been times when the banking system has been down and I’ve had to pay with cash. Given the vulnerability of banking systems to cyberattack I can’t see a day, in the near future when one can safely say that cashless payments will completely replace cash, and the handing over of cash also has the potential to spread infection.

In the Spanish Flu outbreak, just after World War I, approximately 50 million people died. I hope and pray that we won’t approach this number with Corona. But we have been through bad situations before and survived them and I am sure we can with COVID19.

I remember the panic caused by the emergence of HIV/AIDS. Granted it is much easier to contract Corona than AIDS. But, again we are are now, more or less on top of AIDS and I’m sure the same will happen with Covid19.

Apologies for the lengthy response to your article.

Kevin

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