Coronavirus

Inhabitants of Hubei province, members of a religious sect in South Korea and residents of remote areas in Northern Italy appear, so far, to be those most at risk of contracting the virus that is rapidly spreading around the world and has now been named somewhat uninspiringly as Covid 19.

Travellers from the regions mentioned appear to be responsible for the isolated outbreaks in other countries as well as those that have turned vacations, be they on a cruise ship or in a luxury hotel, into potential hell-holes.

Imagine, therefore, my consternation when eating breakfast on our final morning in Cyprus to be seated on a table next to a couple speaking Italian, when the man began to cough repeatedly without covering his mouth. I know not from where they had travelled but clearly could not eliminate Lombardy from the options. I know that I do sometimes suffer from too vivid an imagination, but next, I swear, he started to look decidedly feverish. Call us paranoid, if you wish, but we left fairly promptly.

In line with many places at the moment, the hotel provided an antibacterial gel to apply to your hands at the entrance to the restaurant. Inevitably, only a minority of guests even seemed to notice it, let alone use it. If hand sanitiser really is going to provide a defence, then presumably it will be most effective only if everyone uses it. After all, guests were hardly holding back when it came to taking hold of ladles and tongs to fill plates at the breakfast buffet, the same ladles and tongs that were then being picked up by other guests. How easily germs spread when you think about it.

For two years, I have been taking an immuno-suppressant. For reasons totally unrelated to the coronavirus, the consultant stopped the prescription at the beginning of the month. I can't descibe how relieved I now am, in circumstances where it seems that those with compromised immune systems could be most at risk. If I personally have to combat this thing, then I want to fire as many healthy white blood cells in its direction as possible.

In retirement, widening horizons through new experiences and travel is one of our greatest happinesses along with socialising and exercise. So much for coronavirus: a looming threat on the peripheries of Paradise. Retirement may be a world away from work and the close human interaction of an office environment, but when the virus has already shown an ability to jump species, the boundaries of a parallel universe aren't going to hold it back.

I am aware that it could yet disrupt our EUrevoir journeys, impede attendance at the gym (think shared exercise mats, dumbbells and cross trainer handles instead of breakfast ladles) and inhibit all forms of social interaction.

Forget stockpiling for a No Deal Brexit, maybe we should be doing it in readiness for self-isolation or a neighbourhood lockdown.

What's happened to my new found optimism? After all the Parish Council has recently finalised the latest version of its Village Resilience Plan. The problem is that the perceived threat has always been flood damage or physical destruction of property from another cause, with an accompanying risk to life and limb. Unfortunately, I doubt if 40 plasters and a handful of bandages in an emergency kit locked in our communal hall are going to help defeat Covid 19.

Short of taking up a hermit style existence, it would appear that the only sensible precautions we can take are to keep tissues at the ready, continuously wash our hands and avoid shaking anybody else's. Rubbing noses will be a no, no as I'm guessing that mutual elbow punching is going to be the only acceptable form of greeting, although I understand that the England Football Team is going to give fist bumping a try.

At this stage, I have no intention of limiting my retirement sitting around at home getting fat, flabby and bored (not necessarily in that order). Doing so, I would probably succumb to infection anyway. For, on the one occasion that I forget to wear gloves to pay for my grocery shopping at the supermarket self-checkout, it would surely be tainted by the previous customer leaving traces of the virus on the touch screen, having just returned from a merry jaunt on Costa Covid.

After all, and putting everything into context, of the Earth's 7.5 billion population only 44,420 are  officially counted as currently suffering from the virus. In the UK only 20 people out of a population of  68 million have been diagnosed. Of course those figures will increase but would curtailing retirement through panic or anxiety even delay the likelihood of falling victim? Staying at home, which is a luxury retirement affords, is more likely to prevent me falling victim to a road traffic accident in circumstances where some 160,000 people a year are injured on our roads, yet that's not something I even consider a threat when I go about my daily activities.

So for the present, retirement and all its plans have to proceed as normal. Anxiety and media induced panic cannot be allowed to interfere. If Covid 19 comes knocking on the door obviously we'll deal with it at that stage, but until that time the fun continues and with scrupulously clean hands too.