Covid-19 Global Lockdown

This week on FaceBook: My wife and I are under lockdown¹, I am not suffering from the blues as in (1) but my wife lives in fear of a taser attack by the police. My sons keep telephoning us to see if we are alright during this lockdown and I guess we should be grateful for that. My younger son persuaded me phone up the NHS as I think that I have the mild form of Covid-19. The NHS help line, as far as I can make out, is overwhelmed by people who think that they might have the coronavirus. My son telephoned to check up on me, telling me that people lied about their symptoms, resulting in them being taken to hospital by ambulance and to be tested for a Covid-19 that they didn’t have.

Would a lockdown have been effective during the black death, it would probably have not been so, however we will never know as people were unaware of the causes of the black death. People were equally unaware when the Derbyshire village of Eyam went into lockdown during the 17th century, it is claimed that doing so saved many lives outside of the village, at great cost to those remaining. Covid-19 may require a political response, but the enemy is a pandemic with flu-like symptoms carried by a virus as at Eyam.

Today the story is different, which lead me to two articles that I read recently, the first was The microbes, the animals and us and the second Microbes in Motion: Touring World History, both viewpoints leading to problems that a vaccine cannot cure. Nevertheless, as is remarked on an Australian site, while Covid-19 calls for solidarity it also begets deeper conflicts and while history may repeat itself, globally the development of a vaccine to save us takes precedence over any other conflict:

 But more importantly, the basic distributive conflicts that characterise politics will rise to the surface. Unless a vaccine saves us, quickly. Let us hope so. The politics of the pandemic

My youngest son and I disagree on the lockdown; at the age that I am now approaching next month, I favour the solution of the survival of the fittest, whilst he supports the lockdown solution. I remarked recently (somewhat facetiously) that in the UK the majority of geriatrics vote Conservative and it is those that must be saved. My research leading to lockdown may render my desires untenable — Covid-19 has introduced not only global anxieties but extreme responses to the lockdown and the abuses it has created.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life. Hamlet 

I Shall be 81 years old next month having lived for more than my ‘three score and ten‘ and I do not understand why people are doing their best to keep me alive. I can understand the concerns of my children and my wife but I do have to shuffle off this mortal coil sometime (using the word coil as Shakespeare intended it to mean). Although, admittedly, dying from Covid-19 is not a particular pleasant way to go, then neither is the thought of sitting somewhere watching television! I would like my end to come as a surprise but Peter Saul’s TED talk has knocked that prospect on the head.

It seems that fear of dying comes in many forms (even lying about a Covid-19 condition) and non more so than those involved in the lockdown. To people anxious about the Covid-19 pandemic, the following link (url) is written by a scarcity expert (USA) who understands exactly the motivation of those involved in a lockdown. The hoarding, panic-buying² and particularly the abuses that’s going on in countries around the world with a lockdown in place, can be seen at (3) and read about at (5).

The language around the virus has been about social isolation, social distancing, telling people as a consumer they’re in this alone fighting for themselves. A scarcity expert explains

However maybe Covid-19, like the black death, is simply nature at work with the next pandemic, which is is unlikely to be a disease³ but could be just as calamitous for the future of the human race. Whatever it comes as, I’m sure that it will ensure the survival of the fittest and that the wealthiest will succeed in their role as a global oligarchy.

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1. Covid-19 Lockdown Blues: Some of you who read this may never experience lockdown as a story to talk about at your future dinner parties, but if you will, mark my words — it’s no joke.

2. Coronavirus exit strategies: How do we get out of lockdown? There are three main strategies for leaving coronavirus lockdown, but each risks a dangerous second wave and further lockdowns if things don’t go as planned

3. Extreme Covid-19 Lockdown: As coronavirus lockdowns have been expanded globally, billions of people have found that they are now faced with unprecedented restrictions. We look at some of the extreme strategies governments are using to police their citizens – from teargas and death threats to beatings and chemicals.

4. Lockdown is the world’s biggest psychological experiment – and we will pay the price: Currently, an estimated 2.6 billion people — one-third of the world’s population — is living under some kind of lockdown or quarantine. This is arguably the largest psychological experiment ever conducted.

5. Lockdown Is A Prison For The Abused: In times of crisis, the most vulnerable members of society are always at the highest risk of harm; the stateless, the impoverished, the displaced, the abused. These are the people who already lack access to healthcare, who don’t have a safe place to self-isolate and who risk being cut off from crucial services and support systems.

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Referenced Articles Books & Definitions:

• A bold text subscript above and preceding a title below (¹·²·³), refers to a book, pdf, podcast, video, slide show and a download url that is usually free.
• Brackets containing a number e.g. (1) reference a particular included article (1-5).
• A link (url), which usually includes the title, are to an included source.
• The intended context of words, idioms, phrases, have their links in italics.
• A long read url* (when used below) is followed by a superscript asterisk.
• Occasionally Open University (OU) free courses are cited.
• JSTOR lets you set up a free account allowing you to have 6 (interchangeable) books stored that you can read online.

¹Covid-19 Lockdowns (url/download): While there are all sorts of different lockdowns currently in place, Statista counted those in which governments ordered their citizens to stay at home and only take a minimum of necessary trips outside, while announcing police enforcements and/or fines for people failing to meet the requirements.

²What stockpiling in the coronavirus crisis reveals about us (url*): These are certainly unsettled times in which to feed ourselves. Over the past month, we have been exposed to an uncanny sight that has been almost unknown in Britain for decades: empty supermarket shelves. When you are not used to it, this sight does strange things to your insides.

³The Great Flood and Great Famine of 1314: During the winter and spring of 2013/2014, Britain suffered a prolonged period of destructive winter storms, resulting in widespread flooding and damage. However this was not the first time that the country had been devastated by heavy periods of rain and bad weather.