The Pandemic

Dear Matthew and Toby

I don't quite know how to start this post, so I'll start with some history and go from there. At the end of last year, in the city of Wuhan in China, doctors began noticing that a number of patients in hospital were contracting pneumonia from a virus they were having difficult identifying. Eventually this virus was identified as a coronavirus and later named SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19. It is very easily transmitted and for people with underlying health conditions or who are older (like 70 plus), it causes a high rate of fatality. I'm sue if you're old enough to access and read this blog, you're very well equipped to understand what this virus has done to change our lives. Anyway, while the doctors were identifying the virus and deciding what to do about it, the virus was slowly spreading around the world. Eventually by mid-March, the virus was upgraded from an epidemic to a world-wide pandemic. 

In Australia, and certainly during the lifetimes of everyone, we had never experienced an epidemic, let alone a pandemic. I knew that the best way to prevent the spread was to socially-distance yourself, but this meant we'd basically be going into lockdown in our house for an unknown amount of time. This lead to panic-buying at grocery stores - see photos below of queues on a Sunday morning at Aldi - and certain items becoming impossible to find, such as toilet paper, long life milk, pasta, pasta sauce, rice, antibacterial wipes, hand sanitser, chicken breast, paper towels, serviettes, canned soup, tuna, even cat food ended up with product limits put on it. People started stocking up, thinking we'd be in our homes for a very long time. We filled both our freezers and fridges with as much meat as they'd fit, and had a stockpile of pet food, pasta, rice etc to get us through for a bit. Tobes, you had recently become obsessed with cows milk in a bottle so we grabbed heaps of long life milk to prevent future breakdowns. We also went to Office Works and bought you a new tablet Matt, as we figured schools were going to close soon, and stocked up on cough lozenges, panadol and neurofen, and did a massive order on Amazon for modern cloth nappies etc in case nappies ran out too. 

After a few weeks of Australian numbers heading up and up, doubling every three days or so, the Australian government took the incredible measure of closing Australia off from the rest of the world. While originally this started as only the countries where the virus was most prevalent, it quickly lead to a world-wide shut down with the only international flights being mercy flights arranged to get Australians home. This proved to be one of the best things possible to stemming the virus in Australia. It was to remain in place for at least the rest of the year. 

By mid-March we'd pulled you from school, Matt, only a couple of weeks before the government closed schools anyway. Your dad and I were ordered to work from home indefinitely, and Tobes you were no longer going to your grandparents place for babysitting as that was risking us spreading the virus to them if we had it and didn't know it (many people, especially people under 50, are asymptomatic and don't know they have the virus). This caused complete and utter chaos in our tiny duplex, trying to homeschool, work, study my Masters and take care of a toddler 24/7. Your dad was trying to be a lawyer from our bedroom while Tobes had taken a new liking to simply shrieking for no apparent reason, all day long. Fun. 

I'll do a separate post on homeschooling, and what your dad and I did to hopefully make this time less traumatic for you both, but for the record (and because my memory will hopefully fade about this time), this was a small snapshot of our lives:

* The only reasons we were allowed to leave our homes was for work (if we couldn't work from home), to get essential goods such as groceries, for medical appointments and for exercise (which you could only do outside, with your family or alone, and not touch any equipment).

* Schools were closed and both public and private schools reverted to online-learning (read: parents were teaching their kids while trying to do everything else). 

* Playgrounds were closed and taped off, so even if we went up the park we could only really scoot around or go Pokemon Go'ing. This did not sit well with you Tobes, as you love going on the playground.

* We had to remain at least 1.5metres away from anyone not in your household at all times.

* We couldn't gather in groups, I think at its most strict, one person could go over to another household, but certainly you couldn't visit extended family members. We didn't see Ma Ma and Gumps for over a month, maybe 6 weeks, despite them living only 15 minutes away. 

* Funerals were limited to 10 people (and you couldn't sit next to each other) and weddings were limited to 5 people. Beauty salons, pubs, restaurants, clubs etc were closed. Alcohol purchases had restrictions placed on it. 

* Going to the doctor for a non-virus related issue became more dangerous than experiencing the issue itself, because there was a strong risk that you'd pick up the virus in the doctor's surgery. As a result of this, telehealth, or appointments via Facetime, were introduced in 10 days (these had been on the government agenda for over 10 years at this point). The government set up COVID-19 testing clinics at the local hospitals, which eventually lead to specific clinics to keep people who were suspected of having the virus away from the general public. 

* WA borders to the Eastern States closed, and further intrastate borders were put in place. For people living in the metro area, the furtherest we were permitted to travel was just south of Mandurah in the Peel region. The Aboriginal communities up north were especially cared for as they were considered most vulnerable. 

* You couldn't do any of your extra curricular activities Matt, will swimming, karate and art classes all coming to an abrupt halt. As noted above, we couldn't catch up with friends, so we turned to meeting 'online' on zoom and Facetime when we wanted to do catchups. 

* Generally life as we knew it shut down. We didn't need to fill up the car for months because we simply didn't go anywhere. It would be seven weeks between me 'popping to the shops' for groceries. Groceries were thankfully delivered to us by Woolies as I was considered in a vulnerable group so we never went to a store as that risked us getting infected. With every delivery, I meticulously wiped down each item with antibacterial spray, or stored them in the laundry for three days (the length of time the virus was said to remain on plastic/cardboard). I even washed our fruit and vegetables in soap (and then thoroughly rinsed them of course). 

We need you to know that Australia came through the pandemic relatively unscathed in comparison to the rest of the world, for three main reasons: We shut down borders both internationally and interstate quickly and quarantined international arrivals, we relied only on top scientific health advice (and not politicians) and our PM and Premiers all formed the national cabinet to coordinate the shutdowns nationally and each state individually. Had all this been delayed by even one week, it is possible we could have reached our initial predicted infection rate of 16 million people and 150,000 deaths. We are beyond lucky to live where we do. Schools returned, playgrounds opened. Your dad and I could return to our workplaces, albeit with new rules in place. You could hug your grandparents again without me fearing you were exposing them to death (this may seem absolutely stupid, but it was the real risk being experienced). 

I hope when you're reading this that the shutdown is just a blip in your memory Matt, and I doubt you'd have any memory of it at all Tobes. You may still be practising some form of social distancing, and what you know as 'normal life' is what us older people know as 'the new normal'. I hope there's a vaccine and we've been able to travel overseas again, or that there's been no war between the US and China as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, or that there's mass unemployment still. At the moment we just live one day at a time, completely unsure of what the future holds and still in global trauma following the impact of the virus. But Western Australia is mostly back to normal, or as normal as we can possibly get for the moment, and for that I am truly grateful. 

Love you boys - you lived through history, don't forget it!

Mum xxx