2020 Coronavirus

HOME 2020 FAMILY CORONAVIRUS LAKES PROJECTS GIGS MISCELLANEOUS

When the news of the coronavirus started to appear, it didn't seem possible that it could have the devastating effect it ended up having. The consensus was that the country was well prepared for a pandemic, and that this virus might be similar to influenza, which was dealt with every year. At that time it wasn't generally realised how infectious it was, particularly from asymptomatic people. It seemed comforting to start with that the government appeared to be taking advice from scientists - evidence-based policies having been conspicuously absent in the past. As the science began to be reported more widely, with talk of the Spike protein and a vaccine, it all began to be eerily familiar. Mike had worked on coronaviruses in the 1980s, and had been part of the first group to publish a complete sequence of a coronavirus. The group had also tried to make vaccines, and had expressed the Spike in another virus, and managed to get immune responses in chickens. Worryingly they didn't manage to get significant protection from challenge, but that might have been because they were looking at delivery by aerosol.

There were so many uncertainties. When would our isolation end? Would a vaccine ever work? Would the lockdown get rid of the virus? All we could do was to try to keep ourselves safe, being as careful as we could about avoiding others, and washing or quarantining all of our food and supplies. We missed going out to gigs a lot. We tried to help in a small way by donating to the artists who we would normally support, and buying tickets to online gigs. Kate managed to make sure her mum, in Garstang, got all the food she needed. The local Garstang community volunteers were amazing and delivered food to vulnerable people.

There have been positives, one of them being that we all realised how important our "key workers" were, and this includes our marvellous milkman who delivered milk, yogurts, and some delicious croissants! Also all the Tesco delivery drivers, and all the other delivery drivers who were always polite and reliable.

We tried to keep ourselves busy at home, and turned to anything we could to keep us sane. Twinkley lights stayed on all year, and monthly chocolate deliveries cheered us up. And one of the delights of lockdown was meeting up with our neighbours over the fence every week, whatever the weather. But we have actually been very lucky in that our pensions mean we have not been hit financially, as have so many people. Anyway - here are a few photos to remind us of this year, 2020.