Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.”
Maya Angelou – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969.
These words ring true for me as we enter 2022. The pandemic is still with us and the National and State leaders are telling us we must learn to live with it or live along side of it. My lovely niece Donna has had to learn to live with it as she and her two sons have been infected with COVID in the last weeks of 2021 making it necessary for her family to isolate over the Christmas period. She did isolate not like the infected person who made Newcastle a hot spot (though it was never declared a hotspot) but it is a hotspot.
Several friends and acquaintances have similarly contracted the virus and been isolating at this time they would normally spend with family and friends. Several people I have spoken to have stayed home on New Year’s Eve because they were not willing to be unknowingly exposed to Omicron.
I would say to our leaders I don’t want to live with it. Yes, I have been vaccinated and due in a few weeks to have a booster (if of course a booster dose is available once it is our turn). There is now a requirement for Rapid Antigen Testing but the RATs are not available and if you are lucky enough to find on the price has seriously escalated in the past week and not affordable for many families. Yes, Dominic we are learning to live alongside the virus.
Our leaders are telling us that Omicron whilst more infectious than Delta is not giving those who have been infected with such serious symptoms. Be that as it may we don’t know about the long term effects of this virus just as we did not know that some of those who contracted Delta may still now be symptomatic with what has been termed Long Covid
I am now 70 years of age, Terry is 73. I have a series of health conditions which make getting the virus for me a little scary. There has been a total collapse of the PCR testing clinics. I am sick of the slogans that Scott is spewing out……a slogan wont help those in aged care who cannot see relatives/friends because they have been forced into lockdown, and God forbid, should they contract Covid there is generally only one outcome.
This time last year we were hopeful that we could live alongside the virus. We knew vaccines were around the corner and that lockdowns were behind us. Those hopes were soon dashed when the mutated virus, in Victoria and New South Wales, spread rapidly through the community.
As we enter this New Year it is my hope that our leaders will listen to the health professionals who perhaps take a different view of the way forward our leaders are presenting.