How Covid-19 changed our lives – Rob Rattenbury

It's been more than four years since Covid-19 hit our shores.

Rob Rattenbury is a retired police officer who lives in Whanganui. He has written a weekly column for the Chronicle since 2019.

OPINION

It is over four years now since Covid-19 changed our lives. I remember those early days. I could not believe how fast it spread around our world. It soon impacted on the lives of all of us here in Whanganui.

Life as we knew it came to a stop. No going to work, no going out to socialise, no anything. Just stay home, keep safe, and keep away from everybody initially.

What got me was the silence. No planes, no cars, no lads in their noisy boy-racer cars late at night. Only birdsong. I remember we were allowed to go out for a walk from home at one stage as long as we were masked and kept a certain distance from others.

I remember masked and walking up Mount View Rd on a beautiful late summer day, meeting a young woman coming the other way. We made eye contact but soon both looked away and skirted around each other as if we had the plague. No passing the time of day.

Two frightened people, a young person and an old bloke, each with our own fears. Each nice people who would normally have said hello to each other at least in passing.

We never went near the shops for what seemed like months, having food and other stuff delivered to us by brave, lowly-paid courier drivers who worked so that we could still somehow function at some level as a society.

Our groceries would arrive. Initially, there was advice to wipe them all but that soon stopped.

Those groceries had been picked and packed by supermarket workers who battled through some awful circumstances to serve the public food. Reports of supermarket staff being abused and even assaulted were heartbreakingly not rare.

I would order the groceries online in the early hours of the morning as the delivery slots had all disappeared by dawn. Worrying about actually getting supplies of the basics became a plan for weeks.

Some people just seemed to lose all reason. They were scared and went into “survival of the fittest” mode. Not really one of humanity’s endearing qualities. Selfishness became the norm for some people.

Remember watching the daily televised broadcasts with then Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern and Dr Ashley Bloomfield telling us grim news of the spread of Covid and the daily number of hospitalisations and deaths?

People could not leave the country or enter it for many months. We were blocked off from the world apart from essential imports. Our defence force was mobilised to look after quarantine centres in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

We were all, for a time, prisoners in our own homes.

I remember a Facebook group I was running being at fever pitch. The level of anger and frustration came through loud and clear from people who normally are very sober, responsible people, not rule-breakers. I could read and feel the fear in these people. Dear friends I have known, many all my adult life.

Calming them became another plan for me and the others involved in running the group.

Then the drama of all of us getting vaccinated. The special building in Victoria Avenue where we were summoned to sit with others, all masked up but sitting at a distance. The compassionate patience of the nurses and administration staff at the venue dealing with all of us. The really friendly and helpful security guards.

I admit I was very scared. I really did not want Covid due to other health problems I live with daily. That fear, sadly, has stayed with me to this day.

Covid continues to affect many of our lives. Most people have, by now, accepted it all and just got on with things. Others still have to be careful.

Many people have changed their work habits, working from home. Sadly, many people also lost their jobs and businesses due to Covid and have had to start again. Some businesses are still struggling to return to normal trading figures.

I have become almost reclusive over the past few years. I’ll go to family stuff, small gatherings of friends and one-on-one business meetings but I still do not like going out to large social occasions. Concerts and sports matches are now things of the past. I have become more home focused. I have changed.