Dr Kristopher Lovell

It is only relatively recently that I have started to take an interest in politics and world events, about five or six years ago when I was approaching my 18th birthday and would have the ability to vote. As elections and the odd global tension came and went, I honestly thought it would never get as big or generation defining as Brexit. Something my children and grand-children would read about in their history textbooks and ask me about, and I’d say it was a time where everyone had an opinion and it was all the news would talk about for years. However, the current situation with the coronavirus outbreak will be something that will certainly be etched into all our minds forever, and right now, just over a month into total lockdown, I wonder how long it will take for the world to find normality.

I am a trainee accountant and was born and grew up in the south of Lincolnshire which, even now, at the time of writing, is a comparatively unaffected area of the country. There are people here that are sick, and I suspect that number will get worse before it gets better, but when compared to places like London, I feel grateful that I have not been exposed to the terrifying scenes we see on the television. It was nearer the start of the year, late January or early February perhaps, when I first took notice of the coronavirus headlines on the news. It was odd because I thought it was just a story that I had not kept up with from the start, so generally just dismissed these headlines as nonimportant. Just a trivial event that would not be worth my time reading in to. Eventually it became unavoidable; I started to pay much more attention when people in Italy during the skiing season started to take ill, when the odd case started to appear in more and more countries. I was actually working on an audit of a school that had students on a ski trip very close to the affected areas of Italy, and they had to isolate upon their early return. This was an overreaction, I thought, but probably better to be safe.

That was in mid-February. It only took a couple of weeks before the virus had affected a handful of people in the UK, and the news started to get a lot more serious. I had gone from dismissing the headlines to obsessing over them. I bookmarked a website that detailed the numbers of confirmed cases and deaths in every country and found myself checking it daily. I’m not entirely sure why, because at this point I still very much believed that the virus would be contained and become somewhat forgettable in history. For several days, the UK’s cases had seemingly stalled on 13, and this just reinforced the belief that nothing would come of it. It had missed us, I thought.
The next week I was studying at college for upcoming exams with the confirmed cases quickly reached their hundreds and continuing to grow exponentially. People now were dying at a rate quick enough for individual stories to not be reported on the news, although the daily toll was still in single figures or perhaps tens of people, at this stage. Our tutor had to cut our class short on the final day to have a meeting with regards to the virus, detailing exactly what the plan will be should physical classes no longer be possible. It was starting to feel quite surreal, but I still probably thought that life would generally carry on as normal. It ultimately felt almost impossible in the modern world for everything to be halted by such a thing. Even with Italy, a country with a not-too-dissimilar culture to the UK, now in lockdown, the feeling remained farfetched.
Domestic cases climbed into the thousands within just a few days. I had not yet returned to the office after my tuition days, but rumours were starting to circulate that we would be given the order to collect our things and work from home with very short notice. Sure enough, this was exactly the case. With not being in the office, I had about an hour to collect my belongings if I didn’t want to return the next day. The surreal feeling was overwhelming, it felt like we were in a sci-fi film. I’m not sure whether the situation was ‘exciting’ as such. People were getting seriously sick with very frightening symptoms, and I have always respected that. But seeing how much things had changed in what was literally only a matter of days was just extraordinary, and it was always curious to see what was going to happen next. It was clear more measures were going to be needed, but who knew what this would entail. We had Italy to learn from, but we had not been affected nearly as badly, so would we need to be as harsh?
I had a few days of working from home and made sure to watch all the government’s daily updates. The situation was obviously getting worse and the calls for action to be taken were constant and ubiquitous. Coronavirus was the only topic of news, social media, and conversation. Inescapable. On the evening of 23rd of March, myself and my family sat to watch Johnson’s address to the nation. It was on later than the usual daily updates, but despite this I thought it would be just the same. The PM and a couple of MPs or leading advisors would say their piece, and then answer questions. The pre-recorded video of Johnson, on his own, announcing a strict, police enforced total lockdown was, to me personally, a surprise. It was frightening to watch and just didn’t at all seem real. The sternness of Johnson’s speech had imbedded the gravity of the situation.
Those 4 or 5 minutes of absolute silence, save the television, came from pure shock and an unknown of what to do next. There was an unlimited amount of questions that there were no answers to. The word ‘unprecedented’ was used and heard countless times over the coming days, but there was no better word to sum up the situation. There was no older generation to turn to, and, in a lot of ways, no history books to refer to. Our technology is superior to any other time in our existence and our economy looks unrecognisable to what it did in 1918 during the most recent pandemic, but now the whole country has come to a standstill because of this virus, and no one knows how to react. There is a strong underlying sense of anxiety in everything. Again, it felt impossible.
The following days brought more shock and surprise when the government announced they would pay 80% of one’s wages if their employer had to consider redundancies because of the lockdown. To have a conservative government effectively resort to what can only be described as socialism was entirely unexpected. Unprecedented. Interest rates had also hit an all-time low, being just 0.1%, which started to really imbed into my mind how much trouble the economy was in. This was only the first few days of lockdown, something which inevitably will have to last for weeks, or even months. If large companies in every business sector were struggling, or collapsing, at this early stage, how will most cope over the coming months? Even after the lockdown is lifted, people will surely be cautious, if not scarred by the fear the coronavirus has caused.

Any feeling of curiosity over what might happen next was rapidly being replaced by trepidation. The mindset that this reality must be nightmare and cannot still be happening. All sports had been cancelled, meeting friends and family is effectively illegal, my exams, and therefore career, had been postponed indefinitely. Not a single area of my, or anybody’s, life was unaffected; it had all been turned upside down. The most bizarre part about it though was that it was all happened in approximately two weeks. From ‘something to probably keep an eye on’, to ‘this is how we will have to live for the foreseeable future’ in a fortnight.
At the time of writing, things have become much more routine and the seemingly endless surreal feeling has worn in now. People’s main concern, understandably, is trying to establish when things will go back to normal. Personally, I fail to see how this can ever be established without the risk of a second wave of sickness and deaths. My curiosity currently lies in thinking what the country, and the world, will look like in a year or two. There are still many questions. There is a small fear that we may still have not overcome the virus by then and are still frantically searching for a cure or vaccine. Another concern comes from my understanding of history being that the aftermath can be as important has the event, and I believe this must be the case with the coronavirus pandemic. The global economy looks to be critically damaged and, in my prediction, there will be a considerable amount of time before people break from their social distancing habits. Moreover, it feels like there is a lot of tension brewing between countries, namely the USA, and China. It is impossible to know if this is irrational, as it might amount to nothing, but with the surprises that people have seen as of late, it is hard to not feel even the smallest anxiety.

27.04.2020

My feelings for coronavirus is not stable at all. When I first heard about it on Youtube, I heard it kills people in twenty-four hours, I thought it was something like a horror movie, I was scared. I thought it was only in China, I didn’t believe it could spread this much. After it spread to Turkey, I started not going out at all. I stayed in my room all day. I started to cry because my dad has lung disease. I thought he would die for sure. Even though my dad and I stay at home every day, my mom has to go to work, so I cried for that too. I didn’t care about my eating, my homework, or anything. I stayed in my room all day and watched movies or scrolled down on social media. Now I’m better. I started to draw even though I’m more of a musical person. I started to get my body moving and started to eat healthily. I watched my favorite cartoon Winx and it made me laugh. I like talking with my family more than ever now. The weather started to get nicer so I felt like it was summer and everything is better again. I’m hoping to be able to read books again very soon now.

Even though I’m much better psychologically, I’m still so mad at the government about how it handles the situation. I really thought and hoped they would announce lockdown. I talked with my friend from Argentina. He said they had one thousand cases and they were in lockdown. We have much more cases than that, I don’t even know how much now, I stopped checking it, but we are not in lockdown. Our government can’t announce lockdown because we don’t have a good economy. They can’t give people money while they are at their home. Schools, cafes, and shopping centers are closed, people over the age of sixty-five and people who are under the age of twenty are forbidden to go out but people still can go to work. Instead of helping its citizens and giving them money, the government enables companies to apply unpaid vacation. For example, one week my mom works and the other week she doesn’t. They take turns in the work. The weeks she doesn’t work counts as a vacation. She has a three-weeks vacation right in a year, but she has to count one week of not going to work due to coronavirus as a vacation. After some time, her rights of vacation will run out and she will have to work without receiving any money. There are lots of people who are aggrieved right now and we’re one of them. Unless you have lots of money, you are aggrieved. At least we are middle class, but there are lots of people who have to work without any money right now. The government gives them a thousand liras I guess, but money in Turkey has no value. Also, in lots of families in Turkey, only men work. So there is only one source of income. A family with five children might be receiving only a thousand liras which, again, doesn’t have a value in Turkey. No one can criticize this situation. The tv channels which are criticizing this situation like Fox are getting punished. I guess Fox received four days of punishment. That’s what I read in the newspaper. No one can speak their mind. I try to handle the situation but the government makes me feel helpless.

27.4.20

It is really weird to be in my house for so long. At first, I thought that this virus would not affect us as China is so far from here, Turkey, but now seeing it everywhere around here makes me sad and depressed. When I open the television, I see some news about people still going outside as if there were not a pandemic which makes me really angry. I do not understand how they can be so relaxed and think as if they will not be ill. I saw the news about the teenagers in America protesting against the virus as they cannot make their proms which made me angrier with people around the world. Having seen so many people dying because of this virus, they still care about their prom. I really do not understand.
Even though I am always at home, I do not have the energy to do the things I want. I feel bored and trapped. My dog is the only thing that makes me happy. Apart from him, I am trying to do some exercise even though I give up after two days. I also tell myself that I will not eat too much every day but it never happens. I have lots of homework, but still, I do not have the energy to do them.
Although it has been nearly two months, I am used to be in the house all day and I do not know what I will do when this pandemic is over. I think I will be scared to go out because I do not want to get sick.

When I first heard about this epidemic news, I thought it wasn’t serious. At first, I wasn’t too scared. Then, the epidemic came to Turkey and the situation was serious. I felt like I was in a movie. A drama movie that people die. The world is fighting against the same enemy. An invisible enemy takes our loved ones from us. As I saw the news, I started to feel very bad. Then I started getting out of this psychology. I changed my perspective. I saw my time at home not as a prison but as an opportunity to improve myself. I focus my attention on something else to make my days better. For example, I read books, cook, grow plants. I started getting new hobbies. All these make me feel good. I don’t always look at the news anymore. It makes me unhappy to see negative news all the time. My hope is increasing day by day. I hope everything will be fine soon.

In this quarantine process, I had experienced a lot of things. For example, I am caring for myself, I am studying more than normal because I don’t have anything to do. I am trying to get new hobbies. Literally, I am spending my time learning. Like everyone else, I am feeling isolated because of the quarantine stuff. I missed my friends, my school and actually, I missed being free. We are always watching the news because we are wondering what is going on. Also, I think that schools are going to open but when I hear the government’s updates I feel upset because this semester the schools are not going to open. I am stuck at home.
Honestly, when this quarantine and the virus situation is over I am going to feel free because in our country I cannot go out. I am at the bloom of youth. It is forbidden under the age of 20. This situation made everything more difficult for me. Also, I am being moody.

As a world we are in a bad situation, and of course I am not affected well. As soon as the virus came to our country and schools were closed for a short time, I returned to my family with very little belongings, not knowing that I would never be able to return. The first time I went back to my parents, there was no trouble, but as time went on, I realized that it was hard for people who lived alone to live with their families again. We have to stay home and not go out to protect ourselves from the virus. For someone who has been out almost every day of the week from morning to night, trying to stay home is a really hard and exhausting thing. Even if there is a lockdown, some people, like my father, have to go out and that has become scary as time has gone on. We’re all worried about dad in the family, but unfortunately there’s nothing we can do. In addition to all these problems, even though online education is the best thing to do in this situation, it also affected me badly. Although I have always loved my school and lessons, online education has made me lose my interest and motivation.
I try to stay away from the news on television or social media to avoid the bad news, since my psychology gets worse when I hear bad news, but It’s not possible. For example, when they announced the lockdown for the last two hours, I saw the news of crowds in the streets and markets. I’m not sure who we should be angry with in this situation. And it seems wrong for the government to explain this in the last two hours, and for people to go out into the streets unconscious and without measure. I try not to lose my sanity against all these problems by doing some activities and like painting or reading. I hope we will be able to get out of this situation as soon as possible and with minimal damage.

I don’t know how many days passed since the day that quarantine started due to a pandemic outbreak. I woke up in my bed. I only moved half a meter and sat on the chair to spend time on the laptop. I don’t know how many days I have been repeating the same action. There is sunny weather outside. The morning sun glides through the curtain and hits the corner of my room. Bird chirps are calling people out. Such an atmosphere fuels the desire of even an introverted person like me to go out and travel. But, I have countless things to do in the virtual world.
Numerous news comes from all over the world about the epidemic, but I prefer not to read them. I know they won’t bring me happiness. I contribute to the fight against the epidemic by sitting alone in my home. No other generation had the opportunity to save the world by sitting at home. For this reason, we can feel lucky, I guess. A friend of mine texted me today. Elon Musk was launching thousands of satellites into space to provide the internet for all humanity, he said. He added that if I look at the sky right now, I could see the satellites passing in the sky in a row like train wagons. I looked but I couldn’t see anything. Maybe they weren’t bright enough. But, I realized that I was doing something different in these monotonous days. Let’s see what kind of different activity tomorrow will offer me.

Covid-19 is a serious threat to humankind. Countries all over the world try to cope with it. I would like to tell how I feel about it. Well, in the beginning, I was cool and chill. I was taking advantage of quarantine until yesterday, but then the truth dawn on me. I write a diary sometimes when I want to pour out my soul and yesterday was one of those times. Pretending to tell this event to someone who hasn’t heard a word, made me say “Oh snap!”, “Are we in a movie right now?” or “Is this when the simulator glitches?” It doesn’t feel real. I can’t even describe the emotions I felt at that moment. I am keeping myself sane by thinking about the end of the tunnel. Every tunnel has an end, right? I would like to believe that. The government declared a curfew for weekends and I was really pissed about them not saying which workings were going to be fully operating beforehand. People went to the bakeries to buy bread and increased the speed of spreading of the virus. This was a serious mistake, I thought. I truly believe that humankind is capable of overcoming this virus. We just have to wait and learn how to live with it.

“What barbarity! What ignorance! Can they even be called human? Do they deserve to use up the same air that we do during these hard moments for planet earth? Everybody would have food enough for two days, right, albeit pasta?” These pretty much sum up what some of my social media “friends” posted in reaction to the news of great numbers of people swarming the streets after the announcement of the weekend lockdown two hours before it was supposed to start. As you’ll recall, on the night of Friday, April 10, 2020, the interior minister had announced a weekend long lockdown, allowing his citizens two hours to get ready. Many people had spilled out into the streets looking to buy food, water, medicine and who knows what else. It was to this very event that my friends had reacted so strongly, questioning from our nomadic roots to lack of education, from our stupidity to our disrespectfulness of the many health workers who were jeopardizing their lives to help the sick. While they raged about the thousands on the street from their homes with their stocked-up cellars, they were overlooking one big issue: economics. Many working-class people get paid weekly and receive their salaries on Friday. Many working-class people do not have cellars to stock up. They have to wait until the weekend to do the grocery shopping for their home. I believe that the great majority of people whom we saw on the streets that night were them. So, who are we to pass judgement when it is us who cannot empathize, let alone sympathize?

I’m lucky in the fact that I haven’t (yet) felt a fear like a lot of people have. I’m able to do my job from home so can still work full time. From my p.o.v. isolation seems to have brought out a great sense of fun and creativity in others and has shown how strong a species we are when it comes to dealing with stressful things.