My daily exercise involves a walk with the family for about an hour, maybe 80 minutes. We trundle the streets, taking photographs of Joseph beside road signs. There aren’t that many people out and even less in the locations we end up. The people that we see are wary, a keep a safe distance type of wary. Each time that I pass someone, we both ensure that we hug the furthest edges of our space, without actually crossing the road, and also without seeming that we are doing so. This is because we both assume that the other person is infected, which they might be. However, the fact they they think that I am infected is quite frankly preposterous. I mean do they know who I am, how I live my life and the precautions that I take? No, so they can’t know that I’m the last person who could possibly get infected. The other thing that we do when we give a wide berth to a stranger is get a good look at them. We size them up for any indications that they are a risky type. Wrong, clothes, hair, height, skin, general demeanour, we make an instant judgement on them all. Then we decide that they probably don’t take hand washing, distancing or isolation seriously. I also,suspect that they are the type of person who has hordes of loo roll, pasta and hand sanitiser spilling out of their cupboards. So my giving them a wide berth is both understandable and necessary, but their steering clear of me…it’s out of the question? In fact I am a bit affronted by their decision to step into the road rather than walk too close, because they have decided that I look like the sort who is infected. How dare they?
Nineteen The Covid Diaries – Street Etiquette
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A lot of paranoia around. In the early days of the big CV there was a news article showing a young chinese guy in London who had been beaten up by some white guy who was shouting in fear about being infected. Down in Cranleigh where Charlotte lives an old person was quite anti Charlotte and her children being in the supermarket.
paranoia rules. But I’m not too bothered because I think I have had it and mild symptoms were it was a bit of a sore throat, sneezing, runny eyes and occasional cough. However, I do still keep away from Sarah when she does her coughing because it seems to me that even though one might become immune, there are a lot of hospital staff who are continuously exposed to it and they have protective gear and are still coming down with the virus. So there is still some paranoia even for me.