A sudden, minor revelation yesterday. A colleague who'd seemed unusually insistent on maintaining safe-distancing measures demanded we build-in ART-testing for students in an event we were planning since she would be occupying the same space as them when it was likely that they would be unmasked and she was concerned about going back to her elderly mother who is in fragile health and infecting her. Her sense of something close to panic was clear and entirely understandable. Imagine having to deal with that dreadful possibility on a daily basis. What had seemed like unusual and slightly obsessive insistence turned out to be common sense and a wholly natural, praiseworthy, protectiveness.
A useful reminder of the plight of the fragile at this time, and the dilemma attendant upon the necessary transition to an acceptance of what I've heard termed 'endemicity'. People are going to get hurt. We can only hope that the number is reduced to the lowest possible - and try to ensure we don't turn a blind eye to the pain involved.
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