Bill Harvey: In the flesh

By the time you read this, the next review of the lockdown should have taken place and all the smart money is on things staying as they are for at least several more weeks.

So please accept virtual applause all of you currently adjusting to lockdown and having to review your incomes; all of you helping in front line eye care practice; all of you volunteering your help with testing, deliveries and community support. Johnson was right to correct Thatcher and confirm that ‘there really is such a thing as society.’

Also, in a recent radio debate of the long-term impact of the lockdown (Fallout, Radio 4, 11.04.20), many economists are confident that one outcome of all this will be a re-evaluation upwards of the importance of healthcare and that this will be reflected in future through improved structural and financial support. And now the PM has, I sincerely hope, survived the infection, his gratitude to the two key staff who looked after him in intensive care (Jenny from New Zealand and Luis from Portugal) will force a change in the policy that would force such staff to pay up to two grand per year to work for the NHS.