Lockdown and a national effort

A year of reflections and lessons

THERE WILL be very few families who envisaged still living in lockdown a year to the day after a ‘major incident’ was declared by first responders here.

Not even politicians or policy-makers knew what to fully expect 12 long months ago as Covid started spreading through society with an unforeseen ferocity.

And as the country remembers, on this lockdown anniversary, the 126,000 people, and counting, who have lost their lives after contracting the virus, it is important to reiterate our collective thanks to the nation’s NHS and key workers.

Without their professionalism, and willingness to risk their own health for the greater good, Yorkshire would have been facing a far greater crisis.

Equally their invidious work, much of which is continuing to this day, has been made slightly easier by the support of the vast majority of families here.

There have, inevitably, been the odd exceptions to this, but most people have shown, in the most testing of times, great discipline, resilience and fortitude which has not always been acknowledged. It should be.

After all, this has been a national effort like no other since the end of the Second World War and this spirit of mutual co-operation will also be crucial as civic society, and offices, begin to tenatively reopen in the coming weeks.

Again this will not be without its challenges – it is already clear, for example, that Covid’s impact on mental health is as serious as the growing backlog of NHS treatments – and it will take time for Yorkshire to both readjust and come to terms with living, and working, alongside the pandemic.

But with half of the adult population, including one Boris Johnson, having now received at least one Covid vaccine in surprisingly quick time, there is, at last, hope on the horizon – especially if Britain remains united and genuinely learns from the experiences, good and bad, of the last year.