There's a term that still plays out in the media that irks me, but I must be careful about being too vocal as, each time I mention it, I raise the hackles of friend and foe alike. The term is ‘frontline’ when referring to NHS workers.
The descriptor irks me as I know a few former frontline soldiers who have been in situations that we only read about in Boys’ Own books and are suffering tangible PTSD as a lifelong effect of their combat.
These men and women are the true ‘frontline’ and any other professions attempting to steal valour having worked through Covid, as many of us did, including teachers (who were far less well equipped and more at risk than NHS staff arguably ever were), are extracting the urine, in my humble opinion.
Last Friday, at work, I felt dreadful. By Saturday my body ached all over, and I had a blocked nose which would then completely clear and then be jammed full again a few hours later. The headaches were tangible.
Unsure as to the government guidance, the most recent of which is two years old, I called work and was informed, correctly, that there is no Covid protocol any longer and, if not suffering from a fever, I should return to work.
Many of us warned, through our limited knowledge of virology, that Covid was here to stay.
Although it was, and is a ‘thing’, we are therefore not Covid deniers, as we explained that the economy would tank and be used as an excuse to pillage the younger generations for years to come (check), that business of all description would blame their inadequacies on ‘because of Covid’ (check) and that the lunatics in shops who wore full hazmat suits as they touched, with their bare hands, goods we had just placed on the counter knew better than us at the time.
I guess I’m angry: not that I have the virus, which is but an extension of the common cold (it always was), but more at the brushing over of their diktats now they have realised that actually we were right all along, and the entire episode was an expensive folly as we continue as we were, only this time unprotected as we learn to embrace a virus that is never going to be eradicated.
- Brett Ellis is a teacher.
