Battlestar Galactica and Peter Pan
Are we doomed to repeat the same pandemic loops?
“All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.”
―J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Once I arrived in London early last week, I spent 4 days and 3 nights in a hotel, 700 metres away from my parents’ house, my childhood home.
I was doing this to keep them safe. Having just been on a flight from the US after the Federal mask mandate had been quashed, I was trying to minimising the risk of me passing on any Covid infection I may have picked up on my journey across the world from New Zealand.
I did Covid antigen tests on days 2, 3 and 4. All negative.
I stayed in my hotel for most of the time, apart from the time I spent in the garden, re-uniting with my mum and dad. We cried, we ate together, we talked, we shivered. It is spring in London, so this was only to be expected (equally, I was prepared for it to be 27C instead of 11C too).
And for all the while I was in public, I was masked. I’ve continued to stay masked until the time of writing this (Day 10 of my 21 day trip). Until I return to New Zealand, I will continue to use masks.
I’m also reducing my risk of exposure by choosing to minimise my time in enclosed spaces with poor ventilation. This means not going on buses on the underground and walking instead. I’m in no hurry, and it’s actually interesting to be above ground and walking and seeing a lot of things I would not normally be aware of. It’s actually changed my ideas about the walkability of London too. I mean, you couldn’t walk around and about the whole thing, but areas are actually closer than you imagine. To be honest, sometimes I feel like I’m getting to places in not much time more than walking through tunnels to catch a tube train and then walking through more tunnels to get back above ground again. That time (and distance) adds up.
No heat in more ways than the weather
What I’ve been a little surprised about is the lack of friction I have seen around mask-wearing. I was expecting more aggro than I have received. I have received none.
No one gives a toss about whether or not I am wearing a mask.
Let me be clear, the incidence of mask-wearing in public here in London is low. My first estimate was around 1 in 20. I’ve lowered that down to 1 in 50, though the ratio goes up a little when I’ve been on the train to and from Paddington.
Talking with friends, it’s clear I’ve missed the culture war on this issue. It’s not that there wasn’t friction. It’s just that the friction isn’t around anymore - at least, not as obviously. Talking with friends of friends at a cricket match I went to, I was told that people would sometimes quietly wonder about, or even quietly exchange views about, why someone might be wearing a mask where they perhaps deemed none was necessary.
“Perhaps they’re not feeling well and protecting others”
“ …maybe they've got someone vulnerable at home”
“ … but why are they wearing it outside when they’re no-one near anyone else?”
But these are musings rather than accusations. I have heard NZ and US friends tell me how people would come up to them in the street and inform them it was no longer necessary to wear a mask. There’s none of that in-your-face-defend-your-behaviour-because-it-offends-me-and-all-i-stand-for here.
I still think it’s a mass organised self-deception and minimisation of risk that is going on. It’s one explanation for this mad strategy of ‘living with covid’ without encouraging people to take adequate measures to reduce their risk of re-infection, even if you’ve had Covid recently. The evidence is quite clear that this can happen and is happening. We also know that the virus continues to mutate, and we do not know how any new wide-spreading variant may behave and what kind of disease it may cause.
It seems to be wilfully burying your head in the sand to ignore these known unknowns. Perhaps we cannot continue as we have before in certain phases of the pandemic. But that surely doesn’t mean throwing all caution to the wind? I still can’t fathom why NZ school mask wearing has been devolved to School-level decision making without ensuring necessary and sufficient ventilation has been put in place.
I decided before I made this trip that I would continue with my masking and other risk minimisation behaviours throughout this trip, no matter what pushback I received. In fact, my friends and family have made points of suggesting outdoor places to meet, and have volunteered to do antigen tests before meeting me to for assurance.
For this, I am grateful. I know that these kinds of issues have ruined friendships and family relationships over the past two years, and I’m thankful that I have avoided most of this fallout.
At many times during this pandemic, it has felt surreal, like an episode from some science fiction series - a kind of unreality that has imbued all that has gone on. And now I’m here in London, I’m struck by this feeling all over again. Yes, no-one is giving me a hard time, but also, people are also deliberately looking the other way, wishing this would all go away. Life is hard enough.
“All this happened before and it will happen again.” - Battlestar Galactica
And as the pandemic has continued to go on, it has felt like we have perhaps become trapped, refusing to put into action what we have just learned for fear of prolonging the pandemic experience.
But let us be clear that it is a choice to not learn, to not apply knowledge, to not make cultural behaviour changes that lessen the chance of this pandemic loop continuing. It doesn’t have to continue like this.
We can and should nudge the loop.
Six: “All of this has happened before...”
Baltar: “But the question remains: does all of this have to happen again?”
-Battlestar Galactica