Below is a Guardian Fletter from Tuesday 10th March 2020.
I was in central London that week, working. Covid was already widespread in the Capital although that did not become clear until much later.
The PM Boris Johnson was delaying a lockdown or indeed anything in the way of restrictions. Judging from the Fletter the theory at this point was that COVID was spread by contact rather than airborne. Hence no masks but no handshakes either.
Little did I or we know what was to very shortly follow.
I left London on Monday March 16th 2020 (for Cardiff) and did not return until July 2020. A world we have thankfully lost, for the moment, but remembering all those who died or ended up with Long COVID
With handshakes off the agenda due to the coronavirus outbreak, I prefer the traditional form of greeting – the clenched-fist salute. In the unlikely event of encountering Boris Johnson in the wild, a two-finger salute is substituted.
Keith Flett
Tottenham, London
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