When will it start and when will it end?

Before the lockdown started it seemed like everyone was desperate for it to begin – “When are schools closing?”, “Why haven’t schools closed yet?” Now that we’re in lockdown is seems like everyone is asking, “When will it end?” I can’t see how it can end any time soon because the virus will just rebound again. Some things will reopen but social distancing will continue for the foreseeable future. It’s true the UK has not been testing enough but testing alone will not allow us to end the lockdown. The mathematician and epidemiologist Adam Kucharski explains why in a Twitter thread.

People say tracing apps are the solution and I think they will be necessary but they also present challenges. According to an article in The Conversation, only 3% of the population can be expected to act cooperatively out of altruism. The app will only be effective if lots of people use it. I have been religiously inputting my symptoms, or lack of, each day to the King’s College COVID symptom tracker app but according to COVID radar, I’m just one of 4206 people doing it. There are over 200,000 people in Aberdeen so that’s only 2% of us. Everyone wants lockdown to end but no one is prepared to make the effort that will allow it to happen.

Daniel was worried today that when the lockdown ends he might not like the taste of meat any more because he won’t have eaten it for such a long time. We never have meat in the house but let the kids choose what they want when we go out and for school dinners. Now that we’re not going out they’re eating only vegan like us. Daniel knows that I’ve lost the taste for meat because it has been such a long time since I ate any and he’s worried the same fate might befall him. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it does.