My world has shrunk, but it’s time to feel alive again

Happy herd immunity, everyone! Well, we must be very nearly there. Covid infections are 97 per cent below their peak, the fastest decline in the world. Prof Tim Spector, of the ZOE app, says the risk of two fully vaccinated people giving each other Covid indoors is “tiny”. Meanwhile, the scientists who warned last week of a scary third wave over the summer have performed a screeching U-turn worthy of Starsky & Hutch. This week, Government advisers admitted a summer wave was “unlikely”. Why do those scientists feel free to terrify people in such a reckless manner? Maybe because there’s no penalty when they get it wrong. There should be. How on earth was there going to be a third wave when most of the population will be vaccinated?

The Prime Minister claimed yesterday that the reduction in

Covid hospitalisations, deaths and infections has not been achieved by vaccination, but by lockdown.

Eh? It is mighty odd for the PM to downplay the UK’S magnificent vaccine rollout when he previously said the vaccine was “the cavalry”. Lockdown can suppress the virus for a bit, but it’s only vaccines that offer protection against it. Why the reluctance to admit the epidemic is pretty much over? Why prolong the fear? It’s so horribly damaging.

On Monday, when nonessential retail reopened, I went to John Lewis. Not to buy anything, I just wanted to inhale. And drink it all in. People around me were euphoric to be out and about. We laughed at nothing, glad to be alive, or maybe to have it confirmed that we were still alive. I do wonder. This past year, something in me died and

I’m not sure it will ever grow back.

Tomorrow, I am going to the hairdresser in London to be restored to my, ahem, natural blonde. To my surprise, I am apprehensive about making the journey. For months, I have only been to the supermarket or walked the dog. My world has shrunk. I need to make myself do it, I know. Baby steps.

Should we really be grateful that certain freedoms have been given back to us this week? Or should we be angry that so many nonsensical restrictions remain with no scientific justification? Apparently, I’m supposed to shiver with a glass of sauvignon blanc in a pub garden, but I can queue inside to use the loo. I can join a throng outside Primark, but not have a socially distanced lunch inside a restaurant. Really?

Mother and baby groups are allowed to meet up again, but the guidance says there must be “no singing”. Which nerd came up with that arbitrary cruelty? He wants shooting, frankly.

You have to have a damn good reason to impose such draconian restrictions on 67million people, causing incalculable suffering. That reason is now gone.