It's hard to believe that we have now officially been living under some form of COVID-19 restrictions for over a year - and what a year it's been! However, despite the difficulties (and not to underestimate the hardship endured by people), we have also seen the emergence of a thoughtfulness and resilience, that spark of humanity, which has caused us to reach out to each other and try and make things better, even in a little way (for example, check out this virtual world tour through other people's windows!) - I honestly feel that so much good is going to come from all of this, even though there's a lot of hurt and pain and damage that also needs to be addressed. I'm convinced that this pandemic has brought out the very best in people, and it has shown us what is really important to us. At the same time, it has exposed areas in individual lives and in society in general that we had always pretended not to notice or would prefer not to see, which has been traumatic in its own way. It has been a reckoning of sorts, uncomfortable and even unbearable for some, but perhaps this realization can be used to improve those aspects of our immediate and wider environment that we had previously tried to hide or ignore - this experience has been a real eye-opener for all of us and it's up to each individual not only to acknowledge the suffering, but also, to take the good from what we've had to endure. It's not an easy process, for sure, but it could be a very worthwhile one
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It really is a sign of the times that I completely forgot to post on the 18th of February this year, the date of my first ever blog post way back in 2012 - how did I not remember this?? All I can say is that these are NOT normal times and we need to make allowances for one another... things are hard enough so let's all just be friends and ignore each other's failings! I find it difficult to believe I've been bothering the internet for 9 years now; it's been lovely and busy and distracting recently, despite our latest lockdown conditions, and because nothing much is happening in terms of going places or doing things, I haven't focused too much on writing here, but I love my tiny corner of the world wide web dearly - it's my own little fiefdom and I've spent many, many happy hours pondering and analyzing and meandering here. Words are a great gift to us, and I consider myself extraordinarily blessed to have this outlet for my thoughts and ramblings, or my digital scrapbook/diary as it is also known (to me). So, happy 9th birthday Andonanothernote.weebly.com and here's to a great year to come!
Well, 2021 has certainly continued on from where 2020 left off, and the airwaves are still saturated with coverage of COVID-19. We are in the midst of a so-called 'third wave' of the disease, and case numbers and hospitalizations in Ireland have been extraordinarily high recently. It is now generally accepted that lockdown will be an ever-present feature of our lives for the forseeable future, notwithstanding the rollout of various vaccination programmes. As these new vaccines are largely untested, the risk to vulnerable populations is just too high until we have more data and can more accurately assess the efficacy of our vaccination strategy. We therefore need to buckle up and settle in for the long-haul as it has become crystal clear that this is most definitely a marathon and not a sprint.
Happy New Year's Eve everyone! What a monumental year it's been - it's really quite difficult to put into words the sheer emotionality of the 2020 experience and I think it's definitely the case that we haven't yet fully processed everything that's happened. It's been strange and sad and scary and quite unbelievable, but we're here at the tail-end of a truly historic year, and it's appropriate at this point to reflect a little on how our lives have been so massively overturned compared to this time last year (we really had no idea what was coming down the tracks). Families have been torn apart, our cultural and societal scaffolding has been rent asunder, we have had to go to war with an unseen enemy and there has been a surfeit of human suffering and loss - everyone has been seriously affected in some way by this pandemic, including the most hardened COVID-deniers. We have been subjected to a non-stop onslaught of fear, spilling over into overt terror at times, and have had to endure the most severe curbs on personal freedom ever seen in a democratic state; people have lost loved ones, livelihoods, pretty much all familial and community supports and there has been no real respite all year apart from a few golden weeks during the summer - Christmas was not the free-for-all we had been promised and which was desperately needed. Now, we are back at full lockdown in Ireland, with even the re-opening of schools being delayed to give our country a chance to reduce the high number of infectious cases before our health service is no longer able to cope. Dramatic times, indeed...
In Ireland, November is traditionally very much a month of reflection, with its dark skies and short days, where we remember our ancestors and get ready for Advent and the Christmas period. It has been especially poignant this year, and it really has been a very intense few weeks as we have also been at Level 5 lockdown (pretty much full lockdown, although schools remain open) in the country since mid-October. I've always loved November; the weather suits the mood so well, and I've enjoyed it again this year, despite the restrictions in place. This second full lockdown has felt completely different to that earlier in the year, and I've found it far less stressful - we now have a much better understanding of the virus and how to treat people who are sick; there are more reliable therapies and we have the promise of an effective vaccine that will be available for use quite soon. Of course there are things that I miss; I miss my friends and family and going places and cafes and crowds in the city centre. However, I've also been reconnecting with people I care about but may have not kept in touch with, and I've been discovering the joys of online communication: in the last few weeks I've virtually attended a neuroscience conference, listened to a talk on the European Drug Report for this year, joined a choir and completed a CIEP course on Medical Editing! Life goes on and we have to make the most of it... I think we'll emerge from this a little sadder but far more wiser - we have had a real lesson on what is important and perhaps this is something that will be a force for good within the human race in the future.
This is only a short post because I completely forgot to put anything coherent or meaningful together during the month - all those online courses and neuroscience conferences took over somewhat! Advent began yesterday and it's time now to prepare for Christmas and look forward to meeting up with our loved ones again in a couple of weeks' time (our Level 5 restrictions are due to be lifted tomorrow and we can travel across county borders again from the 18th of December) - I can't wait! We don't know what 2021 holds in store but let's make the most of this time and enjoy the build-up to Christmas... it's been a long year for everyone and we could all do with a good dose of fairy lights and mistletoe... Over the last year or so I have doing quite a lot of medical case report editing and it's something that I enjoy enormously. I love the theory of medicine; how things go wrong in the body and how they can be fixed. Despite this, I think I would make a terrible doctor, unless I didn't have to deal with patients and feel responsible for them - this kind of work definitely isn't for someone who agonizes and stresses over everything and gets far too emotionally involved in other people's goings-on (not looking at anyone in particular here). Over the years I've realized that having a deep love for and genuine interest in human biology and diagnostics and problem-solving is great and all, but having zero capacity for working under pressure and an astonishing inability to not get upset when other people are also upset, is not ideal - being honest, I would almost certainly not make it through the training and would probably be considered a liability in a medical setting.
Well, after several months of feeling like things were slowly getting back to some semblance of normality, there has been a resurgence in COVID-19 cases and Europe is again facing the reality of further restrictions to curb the spread of the disease. At this stage, 6 months in, people are tired. There is little appetite for heeding additional government warnings and a growing minority are beginning to question the viability and efficacy of the overarching strategy that has been employed worldwide; that is, indiscriminate suppression of the disease within the general population at whatever cost. We now know so much more about this infection - the structure and mechanism of action of the causative agent, how it is spread, who is vulnerable, how best to treat patients - but a vaccine or reliable treatment is still some way off. The clinical manifestations of COVID-19 are hugely variable and infections need to be treated on a case-by-case basis; the course of the disease can be long and difficult and there is no 'one size fits all' approach. As it will realistically be some time (another 6 months? A year?) before the medical and scientific communities are able to efficiently and reliably neutralize the disease (if at all), is lockdown or its variants the best that we can do? The damage to the economy and the psychological/emotional wellbeing of individuals and society as a whole is beyond comprehension at this stage but the real problem is that despite our best efforts to mitigate spread since the lifting of lockdown (social distancing, limits on gatherings and household visits, the wearing of masks, good hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette), the R rate or reproduction number stubbornly remains above 1, and the number of cases continues to rise. Total lockdown, where there was essentially no movement of people beyond a certain distance from their homes, did work well to flatten the curve and for a time afterwards, as restrictions were slowly being eased and behaviours were readjusting, the number of cases remained low. However, as soon as people got back to work in earnest, and children returned to school, and we had tentative opening up of various social outlets, the number of cases inevitably increased again and there is once more a genuine fear that this could translate to an overwhelmed health system in the next few months. Geographically localized lockdowns, with varying levels of restriction, are now the preferred strategy but this is somewhat unwieldy to implement in a country as small as Ireland and brings with it uncertainty and a lack of clarity.
The 'staycation' industry has been booming in Ireland over the past month or so, as non-essential overseas travel is strongly discouraged during this post-lockdown time, and therefore, people have been spending their summer holidays in situ. Luckily, Ireland is a wonderful place in which to go exploring, even if the weather is often entirely erratic. We had organized a few days away in northwest Connemara way back at the beginning of the year, and so, off we went to Cleggan, just north of Clifden, in the middle of August. I had never been to this part of Connemara before and it was lovely; there was plenty of sea and bog and mountain and walks, and the weather was surprisingly sunshine-y.
July has been busy, busy and the arrival of the end of the month has completely taken me by surprise; the weeks are just flying by! There's been a massive change in the past few weeks here, with more lockdown restrictions being lifted, and we can now travel anywhere in Ireland (foreign travel is allowed but strongly discouraged) and pretty much all sectors have opened up for business (except for many 'social' venues such as pubs, nightclubs, theatres and so on). Mask-wearing is mandatory on public transport and within indoor retail spaces, and social distancing/hygiene measures are being tailored and implemented by all business owners - public compliance is good and things are slowly returning to normal (well, the 'new normal').
We have now entered 'Phase 2' of the easing of lockdown restrictions in Ireland, meaning we can travel where we wish within our own counties (and 20km from home if crossing a county border), all retail outlets are open, and we can gather in groups of 6 either indoors or outdoors; social distancing still applies in all scenarios and the wearing of masks is recommended. This is monumental as many people will now be allowed to visit family members they haven't seen in months and shops designated as 'non-essential' are permitted to trade. It also seems to be the case that the remaining phases will be accelerated and we could have a return to some kind of normality by the end of June. Psychologically, I think people are understandably wary and it will take some time before confidence levels are high enough to persuade large swathes of the population to venture back outside; it is a welcome relief, however, and an economic necessity at this stage - obviously, the situation will have to be closely monitored but there is a feeling that any second wave is unlikely to occur during the summer months and now is the perfect time to trial a 'new normal'. Let's hope it goes well and we can remain sensible and vigilant - we just don't know enough yet to predict how the infection rate will be affected but it's absolutely necessary to start opening up (slowly) while knowing we have the capacity to respond quickly and effectively to any potential surge.
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Really, it contains a little bit of everything, from a celebration of science and the English language to the joys of travel and the Shipping Forecast. The title ('Meanderings') is a fairly accurate description of its content: I write about different things as the mood takes me, but hopefully there's something in here for everyone... Categories
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