But that impatience can also lead to corners being cut, to a tendency to not draw breath to see the bigger picture, and – frankly – sometimes falling at the final hurdle.
I mention it, because it’s something I’m seeing a little of in Jersey right now when it comes to the pandemic. And I get it.
We’re approaching a year of this rubbish.
A year of not being able to do the things we’d ordinarily do. A year of not seeing loved ones. A year of work and school and social lives being turned upside down. A year of job instability for many. A year of business owners wondering if their own enterprise will even exist when all this is over.
But we’re at the very point where our own understandable impatience could not be more badly timed. I say this because Jersey is currently in a brilliant position when it comes to Covid cases.
I’m writing this column on Sunday night where there’s been just one new case in the past day and where the total number of known cases is 19. Think back to the thousand cases just before Christmas and the progress we’ve made as a community is just incredible.
This isn’t down to politicians. This is down to all of us abiding by the rules and guidance, with reassuringly few exceptions.
However, there are now people seeing the incredible vaccination programme being rolled out and calling for all restrictions to end this second.
That sounds so appealing, but it would also be disastrous.
For a start, not all the over-50s and vulnerable have yet had their first jab and developed the immunity that follows just a few weeks later, but there’s also the majority of the population yet to receive any jab at all.
While it’s true to say they are, thankfully, at much smaller risk of serious disease, hospitalisation and death, for a fresh outbreak to work its way through them right now is precisely how viruses mutate.
If we end up with a mutant strain that can then beat the vaccine, we’re back to square one.
Hence… patience please.
We’ve reopened schools with barely a handful of cases. We’ve reopened non-essential retail and close contact businesses with no trouble. And at the start of last week we reopened much of hospitality. The difference with that latest stage of the ‘reconnection’ of the ‘circuit-breaker’ is that it comes with much more inherent risk.
Up to ten people from ten households, in theory, all sitting with zero social distancing and no masks around a table knocking back alcohol with their meal indoors has a risk profile that can’t be dismissed.
My sincere hope is that, in two to three weeks from now, we’ll have no uptick in cases as a consequence. My fear is that, in reality, we will.
Just this weekend, I’ve had multiple reports of infractions of the rules by both hospitality venues and by customers.
Thankfully they’re the minority, but it only takes one person thinking they’re above the rules and guidance to spoil it for the many.
There’s the venue whose waiting staff have been told by the manager not to hurry to remove empty plates at the end of a meal so their diners can keep ordering and drinking alcohol.
That’s not allowed and the venue should be sanctioned.
There are also customers, conversely, who’ve been kicking off at other venues when waiting staff have been taking away empty plates and calling time on the group’s meal. Said customers have even threatened to post bad reviews online, in an attempt to blackmail businesses into breaking the rules. That’s not allowed and the customers should be reported to the authorities.
Then there are the household gatherings which, judging by what people have been telling me, are increasingly common. Of more than a thousand people I surveyed online 57% knew of examples of household gatherings where there was no evident good reason for it.
We’ve already had one household-linked outbreak of nine positive cases in recent weeks with 79 others caught up in the contact tracing process and forced into isolation.
And so, I come back to where I began. Jersey is in such great shape right now. There are just two people in hospital with Covid. There are no known cases in care homes. The vaccination programme is on track to have vaccinated all over-50s and the vulnerable within a couple more weeks.
Let’s not undo all that. Let’s not fall at the final hurdle.
We’ve, collectively, sacrificed so much in so many ways over the past year. With the prospect of a much more normal life looking entirely possible within just a month or two, let’s keep at it so we can put this torrid time behind us.
Very soon, we can expect Covid-19 to be much more like seasonal flu. The boring reality is that the virus is never going away, but the disease can be of a much milder order thanks to both vaccinations and constantly improving treatments.
Patience.
For more comment and opinion pieces, see today’s Jersey Evening Post
