Well… it does rather look as though we are on the verge of a life changing world event.
I’m not a doom monger. I don’t think this is episode one of “Survivors” (the 70s version not the horrid remake) or the beginning of armageddon or anything like that but I do think that people will change their behaviours due to the outbreak of the new virus, COVID-19.
There is a strong chance that large gatherings will become illegal in the short term. Pubs, restaurants and coffee shops will close. Sports fixtures may be played without a live audience. The Olympics will almost certainly be cancelled. And people’s suspicion of each other will grow. We have already seen some nasty racist incidents directed at Asian people (not just the Chinese). I suspect that this will end up expanding to anyone with a cough or a runny nose.
Part of the problem is the way the media report things. As I write this, the media are reporting that there are 90,000 cases of the virus. This is not true. In total there have been over 90,000 cases however as I write 48,448 have made a full recovery. There are currently 40,694 active cases, and between the 17th February and the 2nd March that number dropped every day. And whilst it is likely that this number will start going up again because of the number of cases in South Korea, Iran and Italy, once those infections have peaked (hopefully worldwide in about a month or two if sensible precautions, including restricting movement if needed, are taken) the numbers will drop again.
There have been calls for the delay of the release of the new James Bond film. I think this is wise. I certainly have no intention of going into a crowded cinema at any time soon. Perhaps they should look at other models temporarily, I would certainly pay to stream it upon release if that was an option (though given the choice I would rather them delay it and go and see it in the cinema in the future).
In the meantime we ought to be very grateful to our NHS staff who are effectively on the front line for this. Their efforts will save lives and have hugely positive impacts on the people and peers of those they save.
For unbiased factual information about the spread of COVID-19 I can recommend the following website: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Meanwhile…
I am still working on my fourth draft of The English Hikikomori, and will be for many weeks I think. I have done detailed re-reads of the first five chapters and I am fairly happy that they are almost where they need to be. The work is now fine tuning. I am reading the chapter out loud, making changes, then doing the same again with each chapter until I no longer want to make changes. I am then running the edited chapter through Grammarly which is moving all my commas and suggesting some hyphens and the occasional additional and missing word. Once I have done all of the book I will do a final sweep where I read it slowly out loud to myself, chapter by chapter, and again only move onto the next when I change nothing on a read through. After I have done all of that I shall run the whole book through Grammarly again, then the fourth (and hopefully final) draft will be finished.
Currently I have seventeen chapters left to read through (as soon as this is written I shall start Chapter Six). I am learning things I did not know about punctuation (I never knew for example that any compound number between twenty-one and ninety-nine should have a hyphen. I am not a hyphen fan, and the rules for their use are fairly complex, some of which have now lodged in my brain and many of which never will!)
So work continues.
Stay safe, wash your hands regularly and keep writing!
Richard x
Richard Writes... 