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Full steam ahead into the new year.

Like the telegraph room on the SS Titanic, the warnings of severe trouble ahead were clear in hindsight. Far eastern countries with experience of SARS took the warnings seriously. Europe, it is fair to say, was less quick to grasp the enormity of the potential impact.

At my kid’s school there was worry about a dad who had just come back from a work trip to Singapore, who had he seen and when?!

Like the lookout perched high in the crow’s nest, the warning was shouted, alarm bells were rung. But sometimes you need to see the threat for yourself before you react.

Instead of being the destination for a family summer break, Northern Italy became a place we nervously looked to as an example of what might happen.

Alarm bells

Then came the frantic alarm bells of society realising the warnings were about to come true - we were moving too quickly, too many things had carried on as normal.

Realising that there was no way to avoid collision with the Covid-berg, people started making plans – getting essentials in, buying freezers and upgrading Wi-Fi, preparing to work remotely.

For my family, who started self-isolating after our son developed what was probably (!) just a cough, national lockdown started with collecting our children’s school stuff. Dozens of bags poignantly laid out in the March sunshine awaiting collection.