Burden of duty that virus puts on us all

TÁNAISTE Simon Coveney’s appeal for the public to carry out its collective duty in this unprecedented time struck a chord.

‘The irony is that we are asking our people, in order to pull together, to stay apart,’ he said as the latest phase in the battle against the spread of Covid19 was announced.

That self-isolation and social distancing serves the public good may seem a paradox, particularly for a society like ours that prides itself on its friendliness and where large tranches of the population live in isolated rural areas or are elderly and alone.

But the medical evidence is incontestable about how to minimise contagion. We must keep away from older people or those with underlying health conditions. Older people, in turn, who understandably may distrust the HSE and may have a fatalistic what-willbe-will-be attitude to this emergency must also stay at home and away from children, who are natural vectors for the disease.

Stringent

Individually, we must take responsibility for our health, wash our hands repeatedly, stay away from large gatherings and, above all, report to our GPs any symptoms that we suspect are related to Covid-19 before withdrawing to a room away from our families or flatmates. These measures may seem too stringent, particularly against the backdrop of Cheltenham where thousands of have congregated this week.

Time will tell what grim miscalculation allowed mass entertainment and enterprise prevail over public health. We are individuals, but we are also part of a community and the innumerable acts of random kindness over recent days, of neighbours leaving groceries outside one another’s homes or phoning the elderly, shows that despite the strict limits placed, of necessity, on human contact, that there are many ways of being together, but apart.