We need to talk about Covid's nightmare after-effects, not keep schtum like WWI veterans
With the Covid lockdowns having undermined the idea that school attendance is compulsory, nearly one in eight children are now missing a day at school each week
It’s often said that those who came home from the First World War didn’t want to talk about it. It’s a little more complicated than that. The survivors may have wanted to spare others the grisly details but they also knew they were returning to a nation weary and exhausted and desperate to move on.
There is none so deaf as those who don’t want to hear. It feels the same with the Covid pandemic.
Today is an anniversary but one few will commemorate. On this day six years ago, pubs, clubs and restaurants closed their doors on the Scottish Government’s orders to try to stop the spread of coronavirus.
At this stage in Scotland, seven people had died. The eventual death toll here was 16,465. Covid was such a disruptive and defining event in all our lives and yet how often do we talk or even think about it?
‘Glacial pace’ of Covid inquiry
The Scottish Covid Inquiry is still sitting, although according to lawyer Aamer Anwar, representing the bereaved families, it is moving at a “glacial pace”. The next hearing is in August and it’s unlikely to conclude proceedings until next year at the earliest.
When the conclusions are published, like the results of the long-running Edinburgh trams inquiry, they will seem superfluous, a footnote from another age. We’ve moved on.
That’s little comfort for the families of those who died alone in care homes and hospitals due to decisions taken at the time but it’s the reality of modern life where the next crisis comes long at breakneck speed.
The pandemic may have been the biggest thing in all our lives on this day in 2020 but since then we’ve had the re-election of Donald Trump, Ukraine, Gaza, a general election, the Epstein Scandal and war in the Middle East. Every week brings something new to worry about.
However we need to learn the lessons of the pandemic if only to be better prepared for the next time it happens. And although we might not talk about it, we’re still living with its repercussions.
Retail never really recovered
According to figures published last week, hospital activity in Scotland has not yet returned to pre-Covid levels and inevitably we are still losing people to diseases such as cancer due to delayed diagnosis during to lockdown.
Today is also the day when Rishi Sunak launched furlough and business support as a life raft to keep companies afloat. It worked but retail has never really recovered from the switch to a more online world.
But perhaps the biggest impact over the past six years has been on the young. In Scotland, nearly one in eight children are missing a day at school each week, according to the Commission for School Reform. It says the pandemic led to vast amounts of lost education and also to a fracturing of the acceptance that attendance was compulsory.
When children were not in school, many were glued to screens. Research suggests a 52 per cent rise in social media and screen use amongst the young after the pandemic. We’re now pushing back and trying to limit that, but the damage was done during Covid.
Six years on, social distancing and those Joe Wicks workouts may seem like a dream we’d rather forget, but the nightmare after-effects are ongoing challenges we cannot ignore.
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