Let’s get one thing straight. We were never going to socially distance ourselves out of getting coronavirus. Not unless there’s a vaccine coming quicker than the we had all expected.
The movement restrictions were put in place just to allow field hospitals to be set up, and to buy time for the medical industry to prepare for a sudden influx of cases.
Now that’s been achieved, things can reopen with a renewed sense of preparedness, but it’s not gone away.
For that reason, I completely understand why some people are still not comfortable about going back to work, particularly when they have vulnerable relatives or health issues of their own to consider.
However, for the rest of us, when you take into account that only 0.6 per cent of people in the UAE who get coronavirus need intensive care unit (ICU) intervention, I think we have to fancy our chances a bit more and live.
That’s not to say that we should get blasé and ignore all the government advisories, no way - we all need to keep on being responsible for the sake of others that we may impact.
But, perhaps selfishly, I want to get back to work and I’m not scared because, well, the statistics are in our favour, the infrastructure to protect us is all there, and we also owe it to the rest of the population and the economy to get things back to normal as soon as possible.
The UAE has a young and predominantly fit population, so the majority needn’t be so consumed with this fear that’s just not warranted.
One look at the numbers will also tell you that continued closures are unjustified when stacked against countries abroad and especially when you see that the numbers are levelling off.
This existence for me will also not do. We were never going to be able to hide away until it was all gone. That’s just not realistic. And even if it means that I may expose myself or those around me in my family to greater risk by going out, I think it’s an educated risk - and one not borne out of media hype and hysterics - that I’m willing to take.
Don’t get me wrong, once I return home I won’t be greeting my kids until I shower and use hand sanitiser, but on the whole I do think we need to approach this with a lot more common sense.
In this noise of information that’s encircled coronavirus over the last two months only a few things have really stuck out; it could be months before a vaccine, two years before life returns to normal, and 80 per cent of us will have to get it before we develop herd immunity.
With that in mind, I don’t want to stay indoors forever, it’s probably doing my mental health more damage than coronavirus ever would, and if I have to get it, I’d rather get it out the way, because this eternal limbo is what’s doing me in more.
