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Let's talk about sex

This topic is an overused marketing tool employed universally to cause the paying public to hand over their cash (remember cash?), or to reach for their credit cards (remember them?), login into their online back account, or wave their Smart payment App. Sex sells, everything, from fast cars to fruit, and it also entices people into reading a blog about what the pandemic has done for us. Now, I won’t blame you for leaving at this point but invite you to keep going to what I hope you find is a happy ending. Covid-any number, was only on the tongue of scientists and well-read nerds until 2019, when Covid-19 (see what I did there?) made us aware there had been 18 previous before and that number 19 was going global, not in a nice way. We all know the story and suffered the lock-downs and, in some countries, the restrictions continues today while in places like the UK, we’ve stopped caring all that much having grown weary of the fuss and hubbub.

But what did Covid-19 ever do for us?

For a start, we became very aware of our hand hygiene. For me, this was a no-brainer because since childhood I was taught to always wash and keep clean, especially before meals. Under this banner, I also place coughing and sneezing in public. Didn’t everyone habitually refrain from exploding all over people’s faces with their sneezes and coughs. I think Covid-19 brought back decorum.

The money-makers latched on to this instantly and soon we were paying for hand sanitised and masks of every description and degree of effectiveness. Even governments bought into this, often without even bothering about standards. So now we could say that Covid-19 created new industries.

Personal hygiene, industry - what else did Covid-19 bring us?

Reflection time. Reminding me of the hurricane season in the Caribbean when homes lashed stormy weather locked residents indoors to contemplate life and remember how to pray. Overnight, it seemed, the entire world was told to hide in their homes and stay safe until this deadly pandemic blows over, or, more accurately, to protect each other and save the health service from collapse under the weight of being a health service. This is perhaps better seen as a two-for because on the one hand we had a lot of time to think about what truly matters in life. We took walks, with and without pets, got to spend a lot of quality time with ourselves and, if we were for lucky (or unlucky, as the case may have been) with our significant other(s). We even had a chance to sort out our homes, gardens, lofts, and garages. Has anyone yet calculated how much DIY materials were bought or sold during this period? It was during this time I erected our first ever greenhouse complete with guttering and water butt. So not only did we get quality time to focus in what really matters to us in life, but we also got to value the NHS like we never before, appreciating how fragile this lumbering behemoth of an organisation was. Maybe it is just me. I always saw the NHS as an organisation overflowing with skilled professionals who could tackle anything, if only they were better equipped and properly funded. I guess I am saying that I didn’t think the NHS survived because we managed how many sick people they had to deal with. Call me naïve but I feel sick people are the entire raison d'être of the NHS and so Covid-19 should have been the time to shine, not cower in a corner. So, in fact Covid-19 showed, in my opinion, that we have not in fact been caring for the NHS as we ought, developing a robust organisation that is fully equipped and upskilled to meet the challenge for which it was founded. Am I wrong? Probably. But I would not have known the error of my ways without Covid-19.

Personal hygiene, industry, home isolation, NHS appreciation – but what else did Covid-19 really do for us?

Well, workers got to finally prove to their bosses they could work from home and be more productive too. Of course, not everyone could work from home but those who could made the most of only half-dressing to accommodate being on video to collaborate with fellow home-working colleagues (remembering to un-mute, hopefully). Online platforms became classrooms too, so for teachers too working from home became the reality as was home learning where parents had to oversee their learning offspring, discovering al home what teachers experienced in school.

Personal hygiene, industry, home isolation, NHS appreciation, home working . . . and home posh-meal deliveries!

Yes, we were already receiving home deliveries, but Covid-19 had everything delivered on the doorstep like never before. Maybe this was only another industrial advance. Chefs were packaging meal deals for delivery on wheels so customers could stay home and dine, complete with deliveries of beer or wine. Business still boomed using the Internet to bridge the social gap between them and their customers and still profit. Of course, the entertainment industry soon discovered where loyalties lay, and the term Netflix gained record customer numbers.

… and a happy ending?