THE POSITIVE PROFESSOR
SOCIAL media’s voice of calm Karol Sikora has been signed up by the Daily Express. Readers can now enjoy his soothing advice in these troubled times that have won him hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. If you need reassuring everything’s going to be all right read Professor Positivity.
IT WAS a symbolic moment for many on Sunday when the Department of Health released their daily coronavirus statistics. Waiting for those numbers, usually well after the scheduled time of 2pm, has become somewhat of a ritual. Too many days my heart has sank. So, this Sunday when the number dropped to less than 100 for the first time since March, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Any death is regrettable, but it is possible for things to be better and bad at the same time... 77 reported fatalities on Sunday and 55 on Monday is a huge step in the right direction. They will rise through the week as usual as the data catches up. But when we look at the three or seven-day averages, the curve for Britain is trending firmly downwards.
It may sound obvious but forcing the number of new infections down is the key to getting out of this nightmare. With testing fluctuating so much, it’s difficult to properly assess this number but all signs show that this key statistic is falling dramatically. We are now seeing far fewer confirmed infections than our first week in lockdown. And that’s with an impressive testing system now in place.
I’ve watched with dismay as commentators and gloomy epidemiologists have predicted a second wave after every picture of a packed beach or conga line on VE Day. It just hasn’t happened.
But it’s absolutely right to prepare for every eventuality.
So far, we’ve seen lots of apocalyptic predictions be far wide of the mark. Those making them need to be more considered in their doom-laden predictions.
For many, watching the scenes of thousands ignore social distancing rules over the weekend would have been tough. I implore everyone to keep following the rules however just the cause.
If we can make it a few weeks past the weekend’s events without a spike in infections, I will be more optimistic than ever.