An outing

Brenda, 87, has an appointment for an xray on her very painful leg at the nearby, but not local, hospital. The criteria for Patient Transport has tightened, it's cancer or dialysis or make your own way.

Since one of the exceptions to House Arrest is volunteering, an escape is possible and we have a pleasant outing, without protection and even compliments from the fully masked and gowned radiographer for the act of kindness ... assuming an altruism which was absent ... maybe a fear that was absent too ... the folks on the front line are often facing their own fear and it's hardly surprising that fully a quarter of staff are at home for whatever reason ... the Government prioritise testing on them so they can drive them back to the coal face ... the mixing of metaphors is not accidental and war words are perhaps creating an unhelpful narrative and reality ...

Whilst it is good news that this "war" is not being waged between nations, notwithstanding some sniping and the unexpected spike in Iran, the virus itself is not so special and certainly not susceptible to attack nor inherently evil. Our bodies are host to all sorts of bacteria and viruses, living quite happily together, having adapted to be safe ... mostly ... scientific opinion about this current crisis is by no means universal, even whether a new virus even exists ... action to be taken to make friends with current symptoms and assist the immune system to rebalance the mechanism feels quite different to the old battle against disease, bashing symptoms into submission and leads to outcomes less harsh than this fear based slide into a police state ...

Shall we call it by its name and see how another perspective feels?

Solitary confinement is a cruel punishment for those already identified as elderly and vulnerable.
And it is done to flatten the curve, so they can get a shot at surviving in intensive care. Statistics will show how that works out, but if they die in there, which many will, that doesn't look like a peaceful passing to me ... and meanwhile, if that is the case, the weeks of misery will have been worthless ... health professionals warn about cross infection, yet look at all the exceptions ... postal workers, paper deliveries, food deliveries, fear deliveries ... this madness is surely a mass hallucination, and for all the opportunities to reset the way we live our lives, torturing the most vulnerable is not a justification when they are not even consulted.

Anyway, the still quite modern Bishop Auckland General Hospital is remarkably quiet, whether the calm before the storm or the calm before the long mooted closure not clear ... Brenda enjoyed her ride out and so did I ...