by guest columnist Annie McQueen
We’re in THAT movie. The movie where we see disaster all over the world, behind the shoulders of the reporters, the world crashing around them.
Most of us thought ‘that could never happen to us’…but it has, minus the zombies. And the most frightening thing? The lack of preparedness. In this country the closure of Obama’s pandemic team is most likely to have been a major factor in the US not being prepared, or at the very least it hindered the response. I don’t need to go into details now, we’re too far in. Everyone knows the drill, or at least should. But personally, I’m on my third week of social distancing. (Meetings and gatherings were being canceled two weeks ago, or was it three? I’m losing track). The studios shut down and my husband came home early from shooting a TV series in Atlanta.
His first concern being the commencement of shooting, mine being the possibility of the virus on his jeans. (He’s since, very quickly, come around to the severity of the virus). For a week though, we were on different pages. I was here in LA gently stocking up on food (and admittedly some emergency food like microwave rice) and he was in another state filming, seemingly carrying on regardless.
Feeling alone but not vulnerable (I’m from Sheffield, we don’t do vulnerable) I went into survival mode pretty quickly. Not panic mode, let me be clear. Pure survival. Knowing if we have electricity and water we’d be ok for a few months, I made sure to buy only what we needed for two weeks and as I said, some emergency rice (more like a few packets of cheese risotto which I’ve already eaten, convincing myself that needs must…’). Those two weeks have now passed and I find myself in a situation I’m very unfamiliar with: Uncertainty. I was sure, if we stayed at home for two weeks with cheese risotto and Britbox, it would pass the USA with much less aggression than poor Italy, Iran, China or Spain. But as I sit here writing, the death rate has increased dramatically and the case rate also, here and in UK, with POTUS claiming he’s keen for everything to get back to normal asap! (I can’t begin to write about his incompetence as a leader nay, human being in general).
Which brings me to good old Blighty. Britannia. Great Britain. I’ve lived in LA for 12 years and have spent most of that time longing for England, friends and family, but knowing I have to be here for work. However, this past week has, I suppose, shattered my rose tinted spectacles of my beloved UK. With a pandemic weeks no, days away from destroying lives, Brits crammed into pubs, into parks and onto the tube (granted, a restricted service, a ridiculous idea). Sound bites from punters claiming they’d ‘beat the virus if they got it’ to others simply not caring about the outcome. When did we become so carefree and selfish? Did our grandparents/parents fight in wars for us to value life so cheaply? THIS is a war, and our people aren’t stepping up to the plate. I’m deeply disappointed in my fellow Brits at home for being so reckless and dare I say, idiotic. Is this the future of Britain? Or are we only being shown the minority to sell papers? (I know wishful thinking).
To everyone who IS following the rules and especially those who acted before being told by BJ, Thank You. Thank You for saving people you’ll never meet and for taking the strain off our precious NHS. I’ll never give up on the UK, but for now it’s definitely in the dog house.
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