Final climb is hardest to see blue skies on Covid
World of Politics with Harry McGee
Anyone who has managed to get to the summit of the world’s highest mountain, Everest, will tell you the last 100 metres is the hardest part. You can see the top just ahead of you but you are in the death zone with deep freeze conditions. You are exhausted, sleep-deprived; hardly able to breathe even though you have an oxygen bottle. That last few metres becomes a deathly struggle.
It seems we are at the same stage with the coronavirus pandemic.
We are nearly there – we can see the summit – but it is such a difficult, slog of attrition at the moment.
The third wave of Covid-19 has been really hard for everybody. We have been in effective lockdown since January although, despite the fines, far more people are ignoring rules such as the five kilometre rule (which is impossible to do anyway if you are living in the country, or on the coast).
It has been very difficult for everyone. The new variant of Covid-19 from the UK has counted for scores of thousands of cases and thousands of deaths. Those who wanted to go back to work in hospitality or in other furloughed trades had hopes dashed.
There is a large portion of the Irish adult population which has not worked for a year, where businesses have been shuttered.
And then there are the other consequences that we have not really begun to measure.
What impact will Covid-19 have on other health services? Or on people’s mental health? Or on children who have not been able to do outdoor activities? Or on young people whose education has been impacted and who have been deprived of social contact?
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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