A trophy we all seek: the normalcy of a pre-pandemic world
You know, I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be among a crowd of strangers.
There I was last weekend, sitting alongside 15,000 or so fanatics in a magnificent openair stadium, watching a bunch of highly paid athletes kick a ball about in the world's biggest game in club soccer. Even better, it was my team, Chelsea, out on the pitch, and I was in another country, Portugal, taking it all in. The smile on my face could be seen from outer space.
Win or lose, being outside of England for the first time since June 2019 was trophy enough. After 15 months of off-and-on lockdown, it was magnificent to once again suffer the indignities of travel: the intrusive airport security, over-perfumed dutyfree, and cramped budget airline with zero leg room. Even the new hassles of the pre-flight COVID test and extra passenger locator forms were minor irritations, not major obstacles. The return to “normal” is now tantalizingly close.
Of course, it takes two locations to travel, and the atmosphere in Porto, while warm, remained apprehensive.
There were the primary concerns: the local constabulary not quite knowing what to make of a bunch of (mostly male) Brits invading their historic old town, drowned in lager and singing soccer chants filled with expletives. And then there were the essentials of the pandemic state: a strict local curfew and mandatory masking in all public places.
Portugal's case numbers aren't bad, but neither is their vaccination rate good, so even thousands of pre-tested strangers weren't going to be allowed to place the locals in jeopardy.
These challenges in hosting a major sporting event between two English teams in Portugal, weeks after the loosening of bilateral travelling restrictions between the two countries, represent a microcosm of the challenges facing the world as it reopens from its COVID-enforced hibernation. As much as we like to pretend it's in our hands as a country, it will take everyone around the world getting it right to get things properly opened up.
Having experienced the elation of once again walking in a strange land, eating great food, and meeting new friends, I don't want to go backwards into lockdown again. The elation I experienced on my brief sojourn was much like I imagine a hit from a hard narcotic to be. The politicians who give this feeling to the masses will be rewarded; those who take it away after giving it will be punished.
It's a strange state of political affairs. The pleasures of quotidian life aren't things politicians normally control, but they're the experiences our representatives now hold in their hands as they work with public health experts to reopen safely. The main thing they'll need to get right is maintaining the direction of travel; those who offer a slower, more cautious reopening will take some heat, but those who reopen too quickly only to have to shut down at a later point will take more.
Nor will it be as simple as monitoring local case counts and hospitalizations; what's happening in Porto matters as much as what's happening in Prince Rupert. New variants, especially ones such as the variant identified in India, which have been circulating rapidly even among highly vaccinated populations like the United Kingdom, need to be watched like a hawk.
The pain of this virus is that any victories are likely to only be temporary, so reopenings need to be safeguarded with border vigilance, mass testing and booster vaccinations. Any opening plan without those bits in place will fail.
Put differently, it will take teamwork, across all levels of government. Like how, in the 42nd minute, the Chelsea keeper swung it out wide to the wing back, who nudged it along to the forward, who picked his head up and split the defence with a pass to the striker, who then nudged around the onrushing keeper to bury the ball into the back of the net. Victory!
And oh, how we screamed.
How we jumped. How we hugged perfect strangers. A whole year's worth of COVID-19 restrictions binned and forgotten in a moment of sweet euphoria. It's a feeling I wish on everyone.