With the best of intentions, I know many people are looking wistfully to a time when life can get back to normal. When we can be with family and friends, we can all go back to work, we can go to the pub, we can go on holiday. And the longer we remain in semi-lockdown, the deeper the cravings for normality will become. People are planning street parties ‘for when this is all over’, with neighbour hugging neighbour, singing and dancing and tucking into food and drink all spread out on wooden tables. I don’t think there will be street parties.
For one thing, when will the Covid-19 epidemic be over? Not even the scientists know. In September, perhaps, or much later in the year, in early 2021? But then it will be cold and dark and anyway, if the epidemic is behind us, Covid-19 will still be there. Parties are usually to celebrate, but what will there be to celebrate?
Today, the death toll in the UK was close to 1000. Some experts suggest that figure could double, perhaps even treble, in the next couple of weeks. And in that number there will be people we know and people we are related to. Every single death is a personal tragedy for a family and friends. Any street party post Covid-19 will take place close to where someone has died before their time.
There won’t, surely, be a big bang moment when the virus suddenly burns itself out. Instead, once it has peaked, the numbers will still be large. And if the government lifts all restrictions, the virus will spread once more, causing another spike in infections and deaths. It could be 2022 before the nightmare is over. We will all be tired and weary.
Added to that, our economy will be in ruins. What the government is spending today, bailing out businesses, furloughing employers, paying out in benefits, will all need to be repaid somehow. By the time, we come out of this, we will have lived through, assuming we all make it, a deep recession, perhaps even a full-blown economic depression. Businesses will go to the wall, many jobs will be lost. Taxes will rise steeply, public spending will be slashed. Things will never be the same again.
In the light of summer, or the darkness of winter, we will look back to one of the most terrifying periods of our lifetime, when an invisible enemy ripped into the very fabric of our world. Just two months ago, we are told by government that we were very unlikely to experience any serious consequences from Covid-19, even as it swept through China and beyond. Instead, Nigel Farage was leading a small crowd singing ‘God Save The Queen’.
There will be no street parties when this is all over because there will be nothing to celebrate. Instead, we will reflect on the recent past and raise a glass to those who didn’t make it. And to thank those who helped the rest of us make it.
When the Nightingale death camps are finally closed, then perhaps we can all move on. We will be far too exhausted to party.
