Kelly’s Eye

WHAT nags away at most of us after we wake up each morning during this unprecedented time in all our lives? It isn’t a fear of dying; even the most ghastly scenarios for this outbreak would kill a small minority of the population (though that is scarcely a consolation if your loved ones are among them).

It is rather the open-ended and indefinite nature of what lies before us, and what sort of future we will emerge into once the coronavirus passes.

What will become of our jobs, homes, investments, and children’s prospects?

What we crave most is what no one can give us: some frame of certainty to make the waiting finite.

That’s why the Prime Minister’s claim that, if people observe the self-isolation measures required, the nation could overcome the worst of the outbreak in 12 weeks, was understandable – if perhaps rather optimistic.

Suggestions that a vaccine is 18 months away make the heart sink.

But the proposed government purchase of millions of antibody tests – that will detect if someone has already had Covid-19 and can therefore return to society – provides a potential instance of the tangible progress that will help sustain us for the long haul ahead.

We must for the time being accede to the government’s demands to come through the eye of the storm now upon us.

But looking to the future positively and maintaining a sense of proportion will make the time ahead much more bearable than apocalyptic guilt-tripping.