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Alone In The Time Of Covid
Reflection on the past nine months
Like many writers, I am an introvert. Spending lots of time at home, away from crowds, is not a problem for me. When the situation is forced upon you, however, it becomes a different matter.
In March of this year, Australia started hearing increasing news of the terrible pandemic that had gripped China, then Italy, Spain, the UK. There was doubt and confusion among the public here, as well as our political leaders, about how serious it really was. We reasoned that Australia’s low population density and geographical isolation would protect us. To some extent, it has, though I heard doctor friends agonise over Perth’s low supply of PPE and ICU beds. If the pandemic reached our shores before we were prepared, there was a possibility of our hospitals turning into the crisis centres that we saw on the news from Italy and Spain.
As the states and the federal government started to place limits on gatherings and movement, my anxiety grew. The measures did not seem enough compared to what Singapore and Taiwan were doing. Then news of overrun hospitals in New York started to appear, increasing my fears about what an unchecked pandemic could do to a lax Australian public. I talked to my family in America and could not shake the feeling of dread about what it meant for them and their children…
