Don’t allow the Covid-19 grinches steal Christmas
Bradley Bytes - a sort of political column with Dara Bradley
The ‘Covid-doesn’t-care-about-Christmas’ brigade would make the needles on your Christmas fir tree wilt and turn yellow. And it only early November!
It is true, deadly viruses tend not to mark public holidays or changing seasons. And of course, Coronavirus doesn’t care about Christmas. It didn’t care about St Patrick’s Day. It didn’t care about Easter or Summer. Nor did it care about Halloween.
It doesn’t care about Christmas. But we do. We care about Christmas.
So rather than sucking the only good out of what’s been a shitty year, what’s wrong with giving people hope that restrictions will ease for a period so we can enjoy a safe Christmas?
These ‘Covid-doesn’t-care-about-Christmas’ turkeys would have us locked down, in Level 5 or harsher, interminably ’til a vaccine is found.
The Government was right to resist attempts by NPHET (National Public Health Emergency Team) to plunge the country into a full lockdown earlier, on October 5; the public wasn’t ready or conditioned for it, and might not have complied with the rules before being ‘softened up’.
The Government was also correct to go ‘nuclear’ when it did, two weeks ago, as confirmed cases of Covid-19 had escalated out of control . . . even though in hindsight, Level 3 restrictions now appear to have worked.
The results of the blunter Level 5 curtailment on society and economy will filter through soon. And all going well, by December, we’ll be back to a position where we can open up again, just in time for Santy.
Whether it’s Level 3 or 2, depends on the numbers of cases, hospital admissions, and patients in ICU, and how much pressure is applied from shuttered businesses.
Nobody wants a yo-yo situation, whereby we’re locked down again in January or February, as punishment for festive fun. And Christmas will be different this year; it has to be.
But Christmas in Level 5 or 4 – without allowing people travel home, crossing county boundaries – is unconscionable, and the Grinches calling for it should be ignored. For more Bradley Bytes, see this week's Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.