Focusing on the long game in Covid battle

The concept of normality has been thrown out of the window by coronavirus. What many see as the real start of the sporting year, next week’s scheduled visit to the Masters at Augusta, was an early victim to the epidemic and now other absolutes in the calendar are falling away.

July without Wimbledon would have seemed inconceivable just a few weeks ago but it has now gone.

And August without throngs of culture vultures packed on to the streets of Edinburgh for the Fringe is just wrong.

But, while hugely important in the lives of so many, the arts and the world of sport have no option but to take a back seat while the world wages a battle against the invisible killer that is stalking our communities. They – and events in other fields of endeavour – will return, but only once normality returns to our lives more generally.

Sadly, that is a long way off. Politicians at Holyrood again acknowledged that fact by voting through a package of emergency legislation giving sweeping new powers to the Scottish Parliament to deal with the coronavirus crisis.

The result is likely to be further impacts on the freedoms we all took for granted until this pandemic unfolded. That will be disheartening and discomforting for some. But we must focus on the long game. If the cumulative effect of these cancellations and restrictions is to flatten the viral curve and save lives, the small sacrifices we are all being asked to make right now will be worth it.