Leaving lockdown raises anxiety of those with physical health issues
YOUR editorial of 23 June 2020, dealing primarily with the increasing pressure to reopen the borders of the island, ends with the joint observation and cautionary note that whilst islanders can enjoy being able to walk into work, shops and public buildings without the need for a mask or a huge social gap, it cannot be taken for granted that this situation will prevail for any length of time. Indeed, on the very same day, we had a States of Guernsey media release which moved the goalposts precisely in that direction by announcing a relaxation of isolation procedures, for the ‘mental health and wellbeing of islanders’ for whom such problems would arise from the 14-day self-isolation period associated with travel out of/into the island, but also clearly in response to the threat of legal action from certain residents with (perhaps other) interests in reducing that period.
The concern for ‘mental health and wellbeing’ has thus far been focused upon those for whom ‘lockdown’ has had a negative effect. There will, however, be those, predominantly with underlying physical health issues, for whom personal confidence in abandoning lockdown is fraught with anxiety levels only now becoming evident and rising, as they are repeatedly leapfrogged in doing so by yet another change of phase. To the date of your editorial, only the two full weeks of potential incubation period had passed since all pupils returned to school without apparent negative outcome, and a handful of days since entering phase five. For those who continue to ‘shelter’, there is, as yet, no confidence and hence no enjoyment to be had from a ‘walk into work, shops and public buildings’. There might have been in the best part of a fortnight from now, but by then the risk will have risen again with the relaxation of the isolation procedures. Those whose ‘mental health and wellbeing’ are being positively addressed by hastening such changes and the agencies involved in facilitating them must not do so in ignorance of the detrimental effect these will have on others in the community.
D. LANE
3, Kingston Terrace,
Les Amballes,
St Peter Port,
GY1 1WU.