Watching the PM on Tuesday night, I was reminded of the film ‘Groundhog Day’.
In the film – one of my favourites, incidentally – the reaction of a groundhog as it emerges from its burrow in February determines whether there’ll be six more weeks of winter or an early spring.
Well, it looks like there’ll be no early spring for us and we’re facing prolonged winter, six more months.
What had appeared to be a steady procession back to normality – with people heading off on holiday, the PM encouraging people back to the office, talk of everything being back to normal by Christmas – has been thrown into reverse.
If not exactly back to full lockdown, something not far off it.
What to do?
The only possible advice I can give is the same I give my kids when they’re about to go into an important exam: take a deep breath.
The underlying reality is that little changed this week.
The virus is still out there and it’s just as deadly as it was before. A return to complete normality was always going to be impossible until a vaccine had been found.
Very clever people are working on developing one and huge amounts of money are being thrown at it. In the US, Dr Anthony Fauci says he is fairly confident that there’ll be a vaccine by the end of this year or early next. (For what it’s worth, his boss says it’ll be October, but, hey…)
So, you’ve made it this far, all you can do is take a deep breath and carry on. There is still light at the end of the tunnel, it’s now just a bit further off. Keep doing whatever it is you’ve been doing to stay in the game; keep innovating, keep hoping for the best but planning for the worst.
That groundhog will signal spring eventually.
(Finally, we’re in the process of putting together the mailing list for the Sep/Oct issue of InPublishing magazine, which includes a special feature on subscriptions. To be added to the list, please register here.)
