Surreal Times - Modern Man, Quarantine

The lost spring of 2020

As the lockdown in Britain is eased off & welcomingly quarantine is finally introduced, a measure which anyone with rudimentary common sense can reasonably conclude is the best weapon to fight disease; isolation, distance and time, the oldest & simplest method and natural barrier to disease & pandemic.

Yet the news of the day continues to promote the lifting of quarantine measures as travel company bosses say that new quarantine rules are a “Killer blow to the travel sector” an unsympathetic analogy considering the Viral Pandemic is a “killer blow” first and foremost to human life. Travel businesses need to be more considerate of their words in the aftermath of over 50,000 lives lost in Britain alone, all with families now left grieving, along with another 50,000 lives affected & recovering from serious illness as the virus continues to take lives from Britain and other nations the world over.

These are dangerous times we live in and the normal pre viral behaviors which we all enjoy have to take second place. These behaviors which are a luxury and not a necessity, yet which will undoubtedly with no action prolong human suffering as outbreaks of Virus will not be contained to each region or country and will spread rapidly once again as proven by the nature of this SARS virus which is so elusive to diagnose & contagious to contain, it will not just go away without action.

To end quarantine now when it has only just begun and bring back the Great British Holiday to soon, will only put the lives & wellbeing’s of health care teams & workers; those who we have celebrated and praised for their bravery throughout the pandemic, who have a duty to help the sick and needy, in peril once more.

Along with undermining the efforts of local populations across the globe who have locked down so strictly, as we have only now achieved breathing space through a costly lockdown and arguably in Britain we aren’t quite there yet, why would we so eagerly return to the scenario we were faced with, a heading which would have been catastrophic, before lockdown began?

Have we lost sight of what is at stake already?

Are we that fickle and self-interested, that we will put business & profits before lives?

That we will put good times in the sun before caring for our neighbor?

Captain Tom and all the support he received, clap for Carers & the NHS on a Thursday night at 8pm, changing Facebook profiles to support the NHS and saying Stay Safe like you meant it, was it all bullshit?

In truth Businesses of international travel, should have planned for this event, as the virus and pandemic could be easily considered as a likely occurrence at some point in time. Now more than ever as the World is connected by flights and travelled by more people than ever before. International and long haul destinations once reserved for the jet set and travel hardy are frequented by the masses, as the cost of air travel becomes more and more accessible. The global travel industry has never been so demanded & lucrative with some travel businesses reporting record profits in the years leading up to the pandemic. Why had they not considered this event before and prepared and planned for it? Should borders, airports & flights have been re thought years ago with viral outbreak in mind? Similar to pre 9/11 airport security, anyone with a spec of imagination and an ounce of common sense could see the risk yet nothing was done by the industry, as it was cheaper not to, easier to pretend it wouldn’t happen, to convince yourself that it was safe for the sake of cost.

Traditional tour operators, such as Thomas Cook had already gone bust months before the pandemic began. As they had been too slow to adapt to the new travel desires of Modern Man which treat air travel more as an a to b journey than a luxury, the customers focus & emphasis falls more and more on safety, speed & low cost independent travel, rather than the old ethos of the bells and tassels package holiday, with travel stores, travel reps, buffets & costly excursions, which should have been resigned to the 70’s long ago. Visiting a travel operator’s high street travel shop where the staff dress like members of the Star Trek Enterprise looking through the glossy hand book as they scroll through a screen for their eyes only hasn’t really kept up with the times and “the internet” which enables the customer to be their own travel planner. Lack of reinvention and years of complacency has or will proved the ultimate “Killer Blow” to these big package holiday operators, who haven’t adapted to new technology & new tastes. They are no longer a necessity, in the age of internet travel, when customers can from anywhere, on the bus, on dinner break, at home, on a picnic, at the beach, go on line, click on a destination, research if it’s worth a visit, get honest reviews from other travelers, look at photos, look on google maps & street view, find cheap flights, book accommodation, book a hotel with an exact room, a villa, a flat, transfers or a car hire, insure the whole holiday, pay for everything on a credit or debit card, without the need of travel money, plan it all, book it all & head to the airport without paying for a middle man to do this for them.

Perhaps the last hope for these tour operators was the “All Inclusive Holiday” which in the post viral world is also unlikely to survive in its current form; as who now would want to stand at the salad bar of a Buffet restaurant in the shared use of 1000 other holiday makers, dipping in the same pool, sharing the same sun loungers, corridors, lifts, toilets, transfer bus, flights, airport lounge for one or two weeks?

So when I read demand from business leaders to lift the quarantine and get back to normality despite the surreal times we are now in, I seriously wonder for the moral integrity of these people and businesses. The survival in the short term of these businesses will be achieved by the shareholders and owners to reinvest profits back into their businesses. The government & taxes covered wage costs with the furlough scheme to give them breathing space and look after their employees. Now is the time for them to adapt to the new reality we all face and plan how to get through this, time for them to behave responsibly and ethically, to put lives before profits and staff, employee and customer wellbeing before margins. Why should the Government put everyone back at risk for these non-essential businesses to continue pre viral activities?

It’s disappointing to us as customers if we miss a year of holidays abroad, 2 years, 3 years. The main thing is we are all still alive and not suffering from SARS2, that our elderly relatives & neighbours are still alive as we won’t get them back when they are gone. The main thing is our NHS is functioning to treat people who need help for Modern Mans health conditions, instead of been overwhelmed with COVID 19 patients. The main thing is to protect our Doctors, Nurses, Hospital staff, Care home staff and all workers on the frontline from being exposed to this Virus. The main thing is to consider all of the vulnerable in society who can’t forget that the Virus poses a real risk to their lives, those who can’t just crack on and roll the dice as the odds are stacked against them.

The actions we take next will have far reaching consequences are we all willing to throw away our humanity and compassion for profits and a week or two in the sun?

I fear the true answer to that!!! But time will tell…