Joyce Fegan: Time to wake up from our collective Covid-19 complacency

"It is as if we all wore this really tight pair of shoes for a dozen or so weeks and on taking them off, swore subconsciously to never put them on again. But Covid-19 went nowhere. A vaccine is not ready. The long-term effects of the virus, on those who survived, is not yet known"

The scene at the Kildare Chilling Company Meat Plant, where there has been a significant outbreak of Covid-19 among employees. Picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Remember the memes? The WhatsApp chain letters? The panic grocery buying? The banana bread recipes? The stepping off the footpath as you passed a stranger? The Zoom table quizzes? The new babies presented to grandparents through freshly-cleaned window panes? The closed playgrounds? The clapping for healthcare workers? The painted stones and handmade posters outside of people's homes? The Late Late Show and celebrity Skype interviews? The sound of traffic-free roads? The Garda checkpoints? The deserted M50? The grass growing on Grafton Street? The return of fish to the canals of Venice?

That was lockdown, a few short weeks ago — our great effort to combat the common enemy of an invisible virus with devastating and fatal effects.