I am absolutely fed up with COVID-19 deniers, dubbed 'Covidiots' by Piers Morgan, but dubbed 'Complete Wankers' by me.
As a blogger, I really try my absolute best to remain objective in my writing and let facts tell the story. But in the case of COVID-19, I refuse to sit quietly and watch bogus and insane comments go unnoticed. I have snapped, I have resorted to engaging with these donuts all over social media... I should know better. However, as somebody that has suffered and recovered, my patience with half wit denier was thin anyway - now it's none existent.
Walking around Morrisons yesterday doing our weekly shop, a chipper yet maskless woman came up behind me, reaching her possibly germy hands over my shoulder to grab a reduced pack of fish.
“Stop,” I said gruffly before she got too close. “You’re not wearing a mask.”
“Oh,” she said, surprised — and moved away.
Her surprise surprised me. As I moved away from her, angrily and as fast as humanly possible, I thought, “Do you read the news? Are you on social media for even one minute?” Because literally no person on earth (with a brain in their head) would say it’s okay for you to walk up that close to me without a mask on.
We know though, the brainless are ubiquitous, so I’m being extra, level 11, super cautious. I have suspected long COVID, causing worsening breathing problems, which may put me at moderate risk to catch COVID again, so I barely leave the house these days other than to go to work, and run small errands to the local shops. I share my life with an extremely vulnerable woman, who suffers with arthritis and uncontrolled epilepsy, I have to be this careful. Yet - Every time I step foot out my front door I’m reminded why, ten months after the deadly COVID-19 pandemic began, the entire country is still oozing with coronavirus.
Not enough people are taking it seriously.
I cannot believe the arrogance of some people who refuse to wear a mask or follow simple health and safety measures. How privileged has our existence become that we have got to a point where working together toward a common goal is seen as taking away our personal freedoms? I just don’t understand the logic. I don’t get this selfish desperate need to sit with people you don't know, to eat food or drink together. Especially when studies and public health experts are saying that small gatherings are driving infection spread.
I can’t help but think of people in developing nations. There are children around the world who do not know where their next meal will come from. In some warring countries, children are given weapons and conditioned to kill others. Yet here in Tamworth UK, some people stand inside Asda, screaming at a minimum wage worker for reminding them to follow the rules. What is that all about. It is moronic.
protesters denying COVID-19 exists, outside St Thomas' hospital, where inside people were dying, from COVID-19. It is unbelievable. What wankers they are.
I am aware most people who contract this virus will be completely fine. You often hear people say it’s only the elderly who are dying, as if that is some sort of justification for not taking the pandemic seriously. If my Mother or Father – or my children's Grandparents or their children's Great Grandparents, at 85 years old succumbed to COVID-19, it would shatter me. I know there are many out there who can relate. But there are people on Facebook and those at the anti-covid rally outside St.Thomas' Hospital on New Years Eve, sharing bogus information about the virus to fit a narrative that COVID-19 is not deadly and that everyone is lying to you. That hospitals are actually empty, not over-run - and that for some reason this is a World wide conspiracy, created by governments to control the population. These governments by the way, can't agree what to charge a company to ship a bottle of wine across the border - why the fuck they would then willingly collaborate to make this unbelievable shit up, is beyond me... but then I am not an expert like Dave or Mitchell, Tamworth's resident facebook pandemic experts.
The reason our situation in the UK is getting out of control is because we (the public) haven’t taken COVID-19 seriously enough. Things will continue to be shut down. More and more businesses will close and 6.5 million people are in line to lose jobs. The UK Government stands to lose significant Tax revenue - that is on top of the £350bn already spent to keep people sitting at home watching Netflix, on a very generous furlough scheme. Pandemic deniers will blame the government and mainstream media. I too think that the mainstream media journalism has an awful lot to answer for, when it comes to whipping up hysteria in the sectors of society that we see are intellectually challenged - the people that cannot differentiate between fiction and fact. For this hysteria, I blame the mainstream media. I particularly blame Robert Peston of ITV and Beth Rigby of Sky. Their incessant and relentless, idiotic questioning of the Prime Minister during the daily briefings, makes me quite frankly bilious... What is the point of asking a politician to commit to a date when COVID-19 will be gone, knowing the answer is either "I don't know" or a lie... this kind of sensationalist journalism is entirely pointless, and to anybody with half a brain, entirely designed to make a political statement and provoke failure.
However, for quite literally insulting our brilliant NHS staff, and literally pedalling lies - I will blame the pandemic deniers. I will also blame them for the shops, pubs and hospitality remaining shut - and here is why; it is time for the PM to come clean and tell the general public the truth. The harsh truth that pubs and hospitality venues are safe when controlled within the law.... but unfortunately the public cannot be trusted to abide by the rules, when full of sambuca induced bravado.
The local press sites are full of experts that all know better than all the scientists in all the World. Simon (below) here, is one of those that has caused the Government to be so, so reticent when it comes to opening pubs. We all know that too much consumed alcohol changes behaviour, usually for the worse... imagine what over consumption would do for a half wit like Simon. Then put yourself in the position of making the decision to open pubs, and subjecting thousands of infected Simon's, totally spannered, complete with tequila sweats - on an unsuspecting public.
At the moment the Government cannot trust the public to behave. FACT.
Looking at this from the Governments perspective.. We keep being told in briefings that "the people of the UK have followed the rules and behaved really well" - when we all know this simply isn't true - you only had to look at the news every single day to see that. Harking back to New Years Eve, to protesters denying COVID-19 exists, outside St Thomas' hospital, where inside people were dying, from COVID-19. It is unbelievable. What wankers they are.
We can only assume, that like the majority of UK citizens - the government know that a certain proportion of the UK population are direct descendants of knuckle dragging cave dwellers, who given half a chance will have a massive piss-up. They cannot say "stop acting like twats for 6 months and this will blow over" because the comatose mentality of these people will see that as a green flag to carry on regardless - I would love to see Jonathan Van Tam make an anecdote of it - but alas... it isn't going to happen anytime soon.
I cannot say I believe in everything the government has done to address the pandemic. All I know is, we are in a situation we have never had to deal with before. I also know Johnny no-profile-picture on Facebook does not have the answers, nor does his anime profile picture girlfriend, and you know what, neither do I. Whether you like it or not, trusting the words of public health officials, epidemiologists, the chief scientific officer and other medical experts is our only hope in this. For me, Boris is doing a good job - I certainly wouldn't want the job right now, for any money.
So to all the people that are right now, having read this far, feeling really angry with me... for you I say this; You are not losing your freedom. We are trying to stop our nation and our communities from crumbling. No one cares about your self-absorbed conspiratorial agenda, nobody cares that you can't get pissed up and party, nobody cares that you can't fall out of the club and sleep with a stranger, nobody cares whether you believe in the pandemic or not - nobody cares for your opinion.
There are important undisputed facts, however. Wearing masks, social distancing, and avoiding big crowds absolutely lowers your risk of contracting and spreading coronavirus. People are free to take risks, but not when their risks are a danger to other people.
We owe it to the doctors and nurses of the NHS, who are working themselves literally to death to save us from ourselves, to do these simple things. We owe it to teachers and parents trying to keep their sanity intact with remote learning. We owe it to pub, restaurant and small business owners, who are losing their livelihoods.
Most of all, we owe it to the people who have died from this horrible illness. If you don’t know anyone yet, you will soon. I guarantee it. It’s on all of us to take this more seriously, and collectively. As much as we like to think that we’re all independent, we are not really - we are actually interdependent. Through this nightmare, we’re all really learning how interconnected we are.
So if the cap fits: Stay home / wear a mask / social distance / protect the NHS / protect loved ones. Just do the right thing, and grow up, you absolute tosser. Eventually, we can put COVID-19 behind us, we can go on holiday, and you can go back to complaining about the Tories and Brexit.
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