Covid-19 is pushing the limits of our health service, government and scientific community to the max but perhaps the biggest test the virus poses is on us as a society.
People’s actions over the coming weeks will not only determine the speed and efficiency of recovery from Covid-19 but how they will be regarded in the future.
The financial measures imposed by the government have left no doubt about the gravity of the situation. The success of those measures now relies on us all to act with dignity, selflessness and humanity. Examples, good and bad, are there for everyone to see and history will be our judge.
The optical community is no exception. Practices have heeded the advice to close for routine examinations but optics has not closed its doors to patients with emergencies, triage and online advice being offered. Those practices safely meeting patients’ needs are a credit to the profession.
Practices are also businesses with bills to pay and employees to consider. The government has helped with VAT, rates and PAYE while suppliers have moved to defer payments. Retail optics has also shown that competitive issues can be put aside. Last Thursday night the Hakim Group provided a webinar for concerned optical practices to air their questions. This has led Trevor Rowley’s Optix group to create the Covid-19 Forum, an independent help and advice forum for all those in optics. Join at https://optixforum.uk. It can’t promise to solve all of your problems but it shows you are not alone.
No one knows how Covid-19 will pan out but it has to be fought. As a society we have the ability to work together to fight it if self-interest is put to one side.
Covid-19 will be beaten and we should all be proud of what we did during the crisis.