October 1st, 2023Kyle’s Rant

Initially I thought when the pandemic came into our worlds in March of 2020, it would leave by the end of that year.
In fact we had our first-ever virtual meeting with some of the representatives from Google at that same time, we had never talked to the good folks over there before.
I was sent a link to the meeting which of course was a Google Meet due to the people we were talking to, and I tried to dial into the meeting on my mobile phone and all they got was a look at the inside of my ear for the first few minutes.

At the time we were helping the Victorian Country Press Association to organise a Google News Showcase event, and it was an indelible comment which came from Donna which set the tone. “God, if this thing is still around in November, we will all be f$#%ed.”
And “this thing”, the Covid bug went on to prove that we humans are a pretty resilient and resourceful lot. We all went on to perfect the art of the online meeting – albeit with lots of online meeting bloopers, from children running into shot, background filters of palm- fringed beaches and people not realising they had left their video link on while going to the loo.
The most hilarious blooper for me was a guy in America in an online court appearance with a cat face filter. He tried to convince the judge that “I’m not a cat” in his southern drawl accent. Anyway I dug it up and here is the QR code to it, it’s the video that keeps on giving.

But I digress. My point to all this is that Covid kind of petered away, sort of but not really. It is still around. We do have amazing protections from it and it is more like the flu these days but I foolishly thought there would be dancing in the streets like the scene when WWII was announced as over.
You know – the Melbourne tram car adorned with streamers and the guy skipping up the road in front of it and all-night parties.
But dragging myself in for what is my sixth and probably my last spring Covid shot, I am not sure what actually happened in that blur of three years.
A lot of people we know are still wearing masks when shopping, I still use buckets of sanitiser, am not keen on the handshake and only itch my face with the back of my hand. And there has been no celebration or occasion to mark the end of this life-changing, and sometimes life-snuffing, bug.
We seem to want commemorations for everything else in life, good, bad or indifferent, and with the pandemic are just left to be rudderless and best guess ourselves what’s going on.
My point is that when this all started in March of 2020 we followed the adults’ directions to lockdown and stay safe or face fines, gaol or death.
Now I would just like one adult/politician to say “yes, it is all over, burn your mask, kiss strangers and lick doorknobs if that’s what takes your fancy”. But crickets. Is Covid over? rant over…