Although schools in Ireland are beginning to open back up tomorrow we will probably still be at the highest level of lockdown for several weeks to come, until we've made more progress with our vaccination programme and we start to see the results of this - at the moment it's still something of an unknown quantity but there is cautious optimism that widespread vaccination will at least reduce the spread of transmission and/or the severity of the disease. The medical and scientific communities have worked so hard to get to this point and they should be commended; more and more is being learned about COVID-19 and its causative agent, SARS-CoV-2, and there is now evidence that heightened vulnerability to serious illness is conferred by the presence of cardiometabolic derangements including hypertension and coronary artery disease, and associated factors/comorbidities such as BMI, smoking status and diabetes. As these all have a strong behavioural component it bodes well for the long-term management of this disease - at-risk individuals can be identified early on and given the necessary aids to help eliminate or reduce the impact of factors increasing susceptibility to hospitalization after infection. Of course, there is the worry that new variants of the virus will at some point undermine all of our hard work but this is something that may never happen and we just have to take a leap of faith and see where it goes. On a more positive note, some experts have also predicted that SARS-CoV-2 could eventually be rendered relatively harmless as our immune systems become more efficient at neutralizing and clearing the virus, either through natural exposure or via vaccination, so maybe we should hold on to this comforting thought as well. Whatever happens, it will all work out in the end and we can never give up - life goes on and we should be truly grateful for all we have and the people we love in our lives.
Finally, and it pains me no end to admit this, I wanted to announce that I have capitulated and am now in possession of a smartphone. I KNOW! I have mixed feelings about it myself, having been passionately (and vocally) anti-smartphone for quite some time. It was actually a birthday present from my family and we (me and the phone) spent several weeks eyeballing each other wondering where this was going to go. Well, I'll tell you where it went... I absolutely LOVE it now and I honestly don't know how I got by without it, especially in lockdown.
I'll tell you why I love it:
- Instant access to the internet so I can find out Important Things that I would like to know immediately;
- Communication with my family and friends that doesn't require tedious button-pressing/keyboard-bashing and involves copious deployment of random heart emojis;
- Access to music, audiobooks and more through Spotify;
- Radio Garden - simply the best thing to ever come from the internet (my favourite station is Radio Cigogne, which broadcasts from Moosch in France - such wonderful, Eurovisionesque pop gems in French, German and English; people in Moosch must be the happiest on the planet - but it's all fabulous). Check it out!