social responsibility and hygiene

I started writing this post while sat in what should, by rights, be the safest space in the country. The infusion ward at my local hospital.

If basic hygiene isn't being followed in a room where people are receiving treatment for cancer and respiratory conditions, as well as MS, then we're all going to hell in a handcart.

There's no denying that it has been a weird couple of weeks. At present there doesn't seem to be much happening with Coronavirus in the U.K., apart from people washing their hands. I can't help feeling that a more complete shutdown is only around the corner [see last minute edit below].

I've had the dried and cracked hands of the excessive hand-washer ever since I started self-catheterising. Let's be honest, when you're putting a plastic tube up your junk, you definitely want to be sure that you've got clean hands.

If the only thing that comes out of the Coronavirus pandemic is that people finally get it into their heads that hygiene is for the general good... well, that might be a good thing. As Mrs D said earlier today, maybe people will start listening to actual experts. Imagine that!

I'm currently reading The Death of Truth by Michiko Kakutani. It's a couple of years old but one of its key points - that we're living in a time where every opinion or source of news is viewed as equally valid as the next - still holds true. It's like how racist politicians in the U.K. are regularly given a platform on mainstream TV and news to expound their toxic views because "that's just their opinion".

I'm only two chapters in but it's pretty striking how this sort of postmodern blanket validity, far from being some utopian libertarian ideal, actually plays into the hands of autocratic despots and fascists. Expert opinion can be simply ignored - see also climate change deniers, flat-earthers and anti-vaxxers.

Similar to the anti-vaxxers, I've heard some people saying that Coronavirus won't affect them because they're young with no underlying health conditions. I hope they learn before it's too late that these measures - vaccines, hand washing, self-isolation - only work if we all play along.

It's social responsibility. We all look out for each other. We all play our part.

[edit 12/03/2020 5.28pm] Despite saying that "More families, many more families, are going to lose loved ones before their time", the UK Prime Minister has just announced that he's going to do next to nothing. *slow hand clap*