Dear LPG, 

Covid-19 is now a bad memory for most people, and I just looked at the statistics. This month, it was two years ago since we last experienced a national lockdown. Since then, those who have wanted to have been vaccinated up to 4 times, and most of us accept that if we were to get it today, it would not have too much of an effect on us.  

When I think back to those long, lonely days of lockdown, I remember the depression we felt when the news was full of contagion statistics while we had nothing better to do but take all this in. 

But it taught us a few good habits while keeping us apart.   It is true that not being able to hug your loved ones let alone see them was hard for most of us and the wearing of face masks was inconvenient and annoying, both for the wearer and the person trying to understand what was being communicated from the lips behind one, but a recent internet survey still shows that even today one in five people in the UK use one in certain situations. 

The real thing that it got us all doing was washing our hands more. Sanitiser sales went up, and we all used a lot more soap. But that was then, and it occurs to me that the whole episode is history now, and we are not bothering so much.  

Many of the cleaning dispensers that we find at the entrances of our larger grocery shops and supermarkets no longer have soap in them, and there is now no queue as you wait for your turn to sanitise the trolley’s pushing handle. 

I, for one, must admit to not washing my hands as soon as I get home. I realised that the hand sanitiser bottle that was so important to me whenever I ventured out a couple of years ago is still in my bag but nearly empty, and what is left has not been used for so long that it has gone all gloopy.

We have all got back to our busy lives. Taking 20 seconds when handwashing and remembering all the guidelines about ensuring you did a thorough job have all gone out the window, too. Regardless of the pandemic and everything else we experienced back then; we spent more time keeping bacteria and germs at bay. Perhaps too many of us have forgotten that while Coronavirus is not such a threat anymore, germs are.  

So, while I am reminding myself that this is something that I could do with a refresher course in, I hope that readers won’t be offended that I have brought the subject up again…

 SM, Croydon

SM offers a video or two by way of a hand-washing refresher course …

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