The covid 19 pandemic changed everyone’s lives in so many ways, the worst of which was the loosing of loved ones coupled with not being able to mourn them the way that we would have wished. Many also lost jobs or were put on furlough, we all went through lockdowns and being told to stay at home and be separated from family and friends. For the vast majority, most of the impacts started to decrease as the number of infections and restrictions lowered and society began to open up and in a lot of places life has returned to how it was before the pandemic happened. Despite this, there is still a proportion of society still living with restrictions and potentially life long changes due to the pandemic.
Before the pandemic I was very independent, I was able to use public transport and could go to doctors appointments, hospital appointments, blood tests, scans and even pick up my prescriptions either by myself or with my fiancé. I was able to accept any appointment that I needed. I would only have to turn down appointments if they were in hard to get to locations or if they clashed with something else. Through out the pandemic I wasn’t able to use public transport because of the infection risk, this meant that I could only attend appointments if someone else could take me. I had to turn down appointments all the time. I couldn’t go get my prescription. I couldn’t even go get a coffee. I was trapped.
Although I am now fully vaccinated, I am still more at risk than the general population because my immune system doesn’t respond to vaccines the way a healthy persons would. I still have to wear a mask, I still can’t see my family the way I would like to, I can’t just go get a coffee without assessing all the risks.
Even if it was safe, there isn’t enough public transport. During the pandemic the local bus company dropped the number of buses on the route due to the drop in people catching them and to cope with driver absence. This meant that for a long time buses were only coming once every hour or two. When the restrictions started to lift, the buses were reinstated in some areas but not in mine. Recently they were supposed to but the buses back up to every half an hour but because of driver shortages buses were being pulled from the route at least four days a week with only 10-20 minutes warning.
As an example of the problems this creates, I used the bus for the first time in March last year, I was attending a doctors appointment and while I was in the surgery, the bus home was cancelled due to staffing issues. The next bus then didn’t show either. This meant i ended up being stuck outside the doctors for over an hour in freezing cold and wet weather with only my crutches for support. By this time I was unable to stand any longer so I went back to the surgery to wait for my father to pick me up from work. In total i was out of the house about 3 hours longer than I should have been and was exposed to Covid for a lot longer than necessary. This experience proved that the buses are still unreliable and so I am stuck using expensive taxis or grabbing lifts from my dad. While this isn’t all because of the pandemic, it’s certainly been a contributing factor.
I have always had to be careful around infections, but thanks to covid i will always have to look over my shoulder, I will always have to take more precautions than the average person and I will probably find that I’m always having to defend my decisions to wear masks and be selective about my environment and who I spend my time with. Due to being unable to leave the house for so long my mobility deteriorated much more rapidly than it would have if I had been able to keep active and keep attending my appointments. I will probably never get that mobility back. I missed saying goodbye to my nan because it was too risky for me to go to the funeral, i have missed my niece and nephews 18th birthdays and I may have irreparably lost my independence.
Chronic musician 