The country is coming to terms with the real threat of a ‘second wave’ and adapting to the latest government guidelines. For thousands of people like me who are clinically extremely vulnerable to coronavirus, it marks the beginning of a new and even more difficult phase in our national crisis.
A year ago, as a healthy 33-year-old I could never have imagined what the universe had in store for me. First, I was diagnosed with leukaemia and spent the autumn having intensive chemotherapy. Then in February I learned I would need a stem cell transplant, around the same time as the first few cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the UK. I spent March in hospital having my failing immune system completely wiped out by radiotherapy, and had my lifesaving transplant on the day the WHO declared a global pandemic. Getting home after weeks in isolation should have been a relief, but with the virus killing hundreds of people every day, it was obvious my recovery wasn’t going to be how I’d imagined it.
I was advised to shield from the beginning of lockdown until 1 August, when shielding officially stopped in England. This advice has not changed or been broken down according to medical conditions, despite research showing that people with blood cancer are at higher risk of becoming seriously ill from coronavirus than almost any other condition. Personally I’ve continued to limit my activities to hospital visits and country walks, because I can’t bear the thought of catching the virus now, after all the sacrifices I’ve already made just to be alive.
On Monday, Boris Johnson addressed the House of Commons to lay out new guidelines for keeping the virus at bay, but mentioned clinically vulnerable people only as an aside, telling us that we ‘do not need to shield’ unless we live in a local lockdown area. No scientific backing was given for this position; no acknowledgement of the fact that many of us never really stopped shielding; and no specific measures proposed to protect us, despite rising case numbers.
I’ve not been to the pub since Christmas, so I don’t have much sympathy for anyone who’s complaining about a 10pm curfew.
As for the guidelines that were issued, the vast majority have no bearing on my life right now. I’ve not been to the pub since Christmas, so I don’t have much sympathy for anyone who’s complaining about a 10pm curfew, or only being allowed to meet five of their friends there.
Where work is concerned, the government made a u-turn on their previous advice to go back to the office, and now say everyone should work from home ‘if they can.’ I welcome this as a way to reduce the spread of the virus, but it is of little comfort to people who are clinically vulnerable and have jobs that can’t be done remotely. We need the legal right to work from home, or a specific furlough scheme to cover jobs where that’s not possible. In my own case, having previously been self-employed in an industry that’s no longer functioning, I’m looking for a job but it feels difficult to justify my work-from-home requirement when the official guidance says that I ‘do not need to shield.’
Because of my leukaemia I haven’t worked for a year, and I’m likely to continue suffering financially for as long as coronavirus is a part of all our lives. This is on top of the huge emotional burden of going through cancer treatment, cutting myself off from loved ones and dealing with the overwhelming uncertainty of simply being alive at this moment in history. I actually feel strangely glad not to have a job to go back to; if I did, I might have the added anxiety of having to choose between my income and my health.
It may seem like there are no good options at the moment, but I am sure that choosing to protect the most vulnerable in our society is the right thing to do.
I am as devastated as everyone else about the impact of Covid on jobs and the decimation of entire industries, but I know that if the country were to carry on as normal, I’d be fearing for my life this winter. I feel grateful every day to those who are making sacrifices to protect me and other high-risk individuals. It may seem like there are no good options at the moment, but I am sure that choosing to protect the most vulnerable in our society is the right thing to do. While I welcome this week’s new restrictions, the government must also commit to extending furlough and other support schemes (with specific considerations for working-age shielders) if the population as a whole is to get on board with the enormous sacrifices being demanded of them.
People who were shielded during the peak of this crisis were both legally protected and financially supported. Shielding was advice, not the law, but it meant that we didn’t have to go out to work, and we were able to request free food parcels. Now despite the increasing case numbers and the tightening of restrictions, nothing is being done for those who are most vulnerable to the virus. ‘You do not need to shield’ feels to me like another way of saying ‘we’re not going to protect or support you.’ The potential consequences of this are catastrophic.
Jenni Elbourne is a freelance writer
Have a compelling personal story you want to tell? Find out what we’re looking for here, and pitch us on ukpersonal@huffpost.com
