- iaindryden1
can't be bothered....
She was young, lithe, naturally cheerful, her life lay ahead of her and she was ready to flee the nest. We talked for a good half hour as she clipped my hair, but pleasant and bright as she was, she had little depth and so we ended up entangled in a series of platitudes, even as I asked about her own life.
Because of the awkwardness of trimming around a mask, I spoke of Covid. Of this she knew nothing. “I’m young, healthy, strong.”
I noticed her body was trim, fit, she obviously loved sport. “Yea, I like it.”
And what sport? “Oh, it’s all great.” Did she walk? “Yea.”
I said Covid was like no other diseases. “I’ve had flu, you get better.”
But this is a nasty one. “Well, some suffer, but I’m young.”
I told her about a personal trainer who had had Covid and was now suffering Long-Covid. “Yea?” The term personal trainer had got her attention.
So, you see, even very strong young people find they are not able to recover easily. “Well, I’m young.” So was she. “Oh yea? A woman? Wow that’s cool.”
And so it went on, no interest in the disease, only in the facts which triggered her mind. So how then is the government going to get the young vaccinated. “Oh, I’m too busy at work.”
But you could see if they’ve slots after work. “I want to rest and have fun when I’m done here.”
What did she think of the unlocking in two days? Suddenly she brightened. "Great! I'm really, really very excited! It's going to be fantastic! Life's been so dull for too long."
Take-up amongst the young is very low, yet they are the ones mixing most so they will spread Covid quicker. A friend who works in a big London hospital has Covid, she caught it from her daughter, not from work which you’d expect. And she’d been double vaccinated months ago… Just like our Health Minister Sayid Javid.
Then consider all those unfortunates living where health care is not good, they suffer, they spread and they die, poor people, and without the help of medicines to make it easier. Their young would jump at the offer of a vaccine. You just can’t imagine how bad it is for so many tens of thousands. The virus loves these conditions, it spreads, it changes, it gets better at evading the jab and at killing us. “Yea, that’s sad.” Flat voice dislocated from her mind.
Of this I’d said almost zilch and, as you see, what I did say got that blank, dull eyed response. That says it all. She wasn’t stupid, simply not interested. It will be a long, long time before we can be certain of a normal existence. They say we must live with Covid, well, many will not be able to get that far, it’ll take them. Those who survive, the young like my vacuous hairdresser, will no doubt be OK. “It’s just like flu.”
Hmm.
My hair, by the way, has been cut in a style she obviously loves but which suits somebody a third my age. I’m going to have to let it grown and then ask her boss to redo it.