A Journal of the Plague Year

Thursday 26th March – 8pm I have just come in from the round of applause, a great act of solidarity for the NHS. No sooner had that happened than I received a text message from Eunhae. She is from Korea and lodged with us. Upon her return to South Korea, she was tested straight off the plane and put up for a day in a special facility until the result came through. It was negative. Today she writes: "For me, even though I am 'negative' from the test, I still need to stay home for two weeks strictly and can't even speak with my family face-to-face. When it's necessary I have to wear masks at home. Need to use separate bathroom, plates, towels. This morning the people from the health center visited my house and did the same test again. I didn't know they were coming." It further highlights the difference between their approach and ours. Remember, this advice on isolating behaviour from someone who has a 'negative' test for coronavirus. They...

Thursday 26th March – 7pm Word arrives from China. Last Summer we hosted an English teacher from China. It was lovely. She was a delight. When things went coronavirus-shaped I got in touch to commiserate, to hope she and her family were okay and to wish her the best. They were rather overwhelmed. Very touched that we should have remembered them and asked after them. They live, it turns out, in a town just down the road from Wuhan, the very epicentre of the outbreak. I had not realised. Furthermore her husband works on the front line as a public health doctor. They have one daughter. After a few exchanges there was a sudden hiatus. Everything went quiet. I feared the worst, but finally things sprang back to life. It seems their internet is intermittent. Some of their replies have been tardy, some have not got through at all. However, this latest message, sent on their 50th day of lockdown shows them to be in good shape. Politics is never far away and the anti-Trump sentiment is no...

Thursday, 26th March  – 2pm The truth of the matter is that we don't learn. And we are less likely to now than ever. It's a phenomenon of our country and it will not change. The present emergency is a perfect example. I am prepared to bet you any sum of money you care to imagine that we, as a nation, will not learn the lessons of it. Mostly that will be because we do not think we have anything to learn. Contrast this with the South Koreans or the Taiwanese. Both of these countries border China (well, Taiwan is offshore) and the populations of both became badly infected with coronavirus. In Taiwan the student population is back in schools and colleges. In South Korea the situation is loosening up after a tough time. As I write South Korea is reporting 131 deaths and Taiwan 2. Yes, 2. The link to the Johns Hopkins University source quoted throughout the media is here https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 It makes fascinating i...