Technology
Hi everyone
I was on my bike today and came across a longish section of road closed for resurfacing. I was able to bike on the scraped rough surface and caught up with another cyclist – an unusual occurrence. We joked ‘it’s like lockdown…..there’s no traffic……..but the roads are in a terrible state.’ I felt nostalgic for when the world was simpler and we were all in it together.
There is concern about a covid-19 resurgence – numbers are rising across much of Europe as well as in Australia and elsewhere. Many outbreaks seem to be driven by local clusters where people have spent time together and those people then unknowingly (before they get symptoms) seed the wider local population. Hence the ‘whack a mole’ approach with local shutdowns etc. The bigger encouraging perspective is that the current UK national death rate is lower even than at this time last year and that you have on average a 19/20 chance of survival if you do get infected.
Meanwhile if you are like me the initial fear has gone and I find myself worrying less and less about the virus albeit from the position of my privileged bubble. We welcome guests on the assumption they are not carriers (entirely reasonable given the extremely low incidence) and move to a more normal social life. These are healthy steps though exactly the steps that might contribute in the future to more cases and which will be stamped down on. We get lost in the figures; the BBC used to put up its main news figure relating to daily deaths. Now its number of new cases which however reflects progress. What’s happened to the R figure? Essentially we are relying on the government to guide us – not an easy trust given its track record.
Meanwhile I am sensitive to my own health. I read that the UK, already the fattest nation in Europe before Covid-19, has put on weight during the pandemic - for four main reasons. More snacking, less exercise, more alcohol and a worse diet. The snackers have put on about half a stone on average and we know this is bad news not just for dealing with covid. It increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer – hence the Boris lose weight initiative. Now it’s get on your bike to stay healthier, before it was get on your bike to find a job. Soon it may be both. For me getting on my bike is simply a pleasure and a revitalising activity as well as keeping my weight down.
One aspect of all this is the remoteness of contact that we now routinely experience. It is driven by technology, justified by the pandemic and often supported by its convenience and efficiency. But this development comes at the expense of loss of spontaneity and independence. Examples are everywhere - I went to the dump today to find I had to pre-book. The system was paramount. GPs and hospitals have moved from face to face to remote consultations. It is predicted this will continue after the pandemic with perhaps 50-80% of contacts being remote compared with 25% previously. It has its merits – it can be more efficient when a ‘transaction’ is wanted such as a prescription or a test. However it lacks the very underrated human effect of being examined – being touched. There is much healing in the privacy of the consultation with a trusted doctor and I fear we will not realise what has gone until it has gone. You are becoming a sore throat, a breast cancer, a chest infection not a person with a sore throat, breast cancer or chest infection. We should remember the words of Louis Pasteur, the great French microbiologist, who said ‘The microbe is nothing, the terrain is everything.’ We are not all the same, and we need to be treated and responded to as humans with different conditions, not conditions residing in (irrelevantly) different humans. It will be important that we review what systems are genuinely healthy for our society once the pandemic is over. It is said that the greatest drug a doctor has is him/herself – and he/she should know the dose, the frequency and the side-effects. The same is true for technology.
With love
Derek