By Bernie Bell
I received an email from an old friend – one of my oldest friends – we were at Uni. together. He has a second hand record stall in a market and he has a friend, who works with him there.
His friend was due to go into hospital for a cataract operation, and took a Lateral Flow Test. Which was positive. So he took a PCR test. Which was also positive. I didn’t know that the letters stood for polymerase chain reaction – never thought to look that up until it got more ‘close to home’.
He’s not really ill with it and is at home, isolating. But – he will miss the appointment for his cataract operation and the way things are now, when will he get another appointment?
My friend also took a Lateral Flow Test which, thankfully, was negative. But, as apparently they‘re not always 100% correct, he’s also staying home and doing a test every day for a week – BECAUSE HE IS A REPONSIBLE PERSON! Fully vaccinated, and ‘Boosted’.
This also meant that he has had to close his shop – his only source of income – for at least 10 days.
And he’s concerned for his friend. And I’m concerned for my friend.
That’s the reality of Covid being active in Britain.
Meanwhile, he received an invitation from a couple of other old friends from Uni to meet up to see Van Morrison in concert in Liverpool in late May. That’s a while away, but I don’t see things clearing by then – not as long as people are determined to carry on behaving as though Covid is no longer an active threat to our lives and the stability of our lives.
I said he could be restrained and just say NO, or he could be unrestrained and tell them what he thinks of their daft idea.
Apparently, Van Morrison is an anti-vaxxer – which figures. A wonderful man in many ways – but has long had a reputation for being grouchy. It stops being a joke when he ignores Covid and puts on a concert. If he didn’t do the concert, folk wouldn’t/couldn’t go to it. It’s not like he needs the money.
The welfare of all, depends on all.
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