Some Things The Pandemic Proved

[bronchitikat]

1. The job you were told couldn't be done remotely can be done remotely.  You really don't need to spend up to half your working day commuting!
2. Many differently-abled workers could have been working from home, but employers didn't want them.
3. Internet is a utility, not a luxury.
4. Universal healthcare is necessary.  Properly funded universal healthcare even more so.  More nurses, more doctors, more cleaners, more ancillary staff, fewer Managers!
5. Homelessness can be solved when it affects the rich - in the UK councils were given money by central government and told to house any homeless they could find in closed-for-Lockdown-and-longer hotels.  Government funding for this continued until the end of June.  Councils also provided various support services to help those so housed to get back into 'mainstream housing', work, out of addiction . . .  In July central government told local councils were told - 'here's a pot of money, you decide your priorities'.  Some of the 'swept up into these hotels to prevent them catching and spreading Covid infection' people are now back out on the streets.  Others are being supported in moving on.
6. Childcare isn't "doing nothing all day".  As any full-time Mum/Dad will tell you.
7. Educating children is Hard Work - Schools are not merely 'glorified child-minders'!
8. Universal Credit is not enough to live on.
9. There is funding available when the Chancellor finds it is Absolutely Vital.
10. Wages have nothing to do with skills or value of service, from fruit/veg picker to nurse.
11. Those terrible 'immigrants' who are 'coming over here taking our jobs' are necessary - they pick our fruit/veg, nurse, doctor and clean our hospitals, clean generally . . . and work Really Hard at it.  How many Brits are willing to put in the hours in fields picking fruit/veg? Or become 'just a cleaner?  Or the years of study, racking up Student Debts, it takes to become even a nurse (3 years, £9,000 per year)?
12. Cleaners, supermarket shelf-stackers and checkout operators, and delivery drivers are Key Workers.
13. Some politicians - brewery visit, getting drunk, inability to organise?  And we chose to elect them!
14. People matter.  Relationships matter.  Keeping an eye out for our neighbours matters.
15. Millionaires get tested first, but not spared.
16. What each person does can affect everyone else - wear a mask in crowded areas, in shops, on public transport . . .
17. We are as strong as our most vulnerable.

And, pay our Key Workers fair wages.  They might have appreciated being clapped on a Thursday evening, but clapping won't pay the bills.

Let's just hope we have all learned from it!