Covid legacy has changed so much in life - Christine Grahame

Christine Grahame MSP

Outside the streets were emptied of cars and the pavements of people. Supermarkets put their shutters down and it took me back to the early days of Covid when fear of an unseen virus that could kill made us obedient as never before.

When you consider how hospitals became fortresses with staff encased in layers of protective gear, faces masked, it looked like and was another world. In care homes the elderly and frail were denied contact with family and staff had in many instances make and mend their protection. Attendance at weddings , funerals was limited to small numbers.

That was only a couple of years back but the impact of that time continues. Operations were deferred and with that, disability worsened. So today, when you are told of waiting lists, bear in mind that it takes more that a couple of years to catch up.

Families may even resort to Zoom at Christmas.

We saw on our news bulletins the varying quality in care homes. That has led to the Scottish Government reviewing how care can be standardised and of high quality and how we should value those working there by ensuring decent pay.

The impact too on our young is difficult to quantify but it is there. Months communicating only online has made a generational shift and it seems another limb has attached itself to our young and not so young – the mobile phone, so sophisticated it is to all intents and purposes a minicomputer.

My own grandchildren have its daily use rationed and of course there are calls to have it banned in schools. But moving online is not confined to the young.

I became familiar with Teams and Zoom and many meetings I have take place that way. I speak to and see my family in Canada thanks to WhatsApp, though they frequently forget the time difference, which makes for calls at strange times of the day!

Even the Scottish Parliament now has remote participation and voting. I can shop online, I also bank online. The impact of that can be seen in the closures of our High Street banks and town centre shops. This means that those who cannot use the internet are disadvantaged.

I contact my GP by telephoning between the hours of 8-10am. You then have to be prepared to hang on till your call is answered. Then there is the call back later. If push comes to shove you can actually ask to see a GP.

When I do my MSP surgeries I used to have a form with a space for fax details. Remember those? Now it is rare for someone not to have an email address and a mobile number.

Cash used to be king but credit cards have swept the board and what a kerfuffle when the ATMs don’t work or the checkout card reader is rendered useless because the internet does down?

Covid has indeed changed our daily lives one way or the other and not always for the better.

MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale​