2020 started optimistically; to be fair most years do. This one seemed a bit special with its cool muddled palindromic looks. But just a month in and it was clear that 2020 was probably going to be one of those years.
You know the type; one of those years which history remembers for just one thing. Even people with a rudimentary knowledge can trot off 1066, 1492, 1914, 1939, 1969 and 2001 and what happened in each case. It turns out that 2020 is to be one for that list.
Covid-19, the disease caused by a novel coronavirus which appeared in China at the end of 2019 became a lethal pandemic during 2020. Early estimates quickly established that it was fatal to 1% of the people it infected. At first that didn’t sound too bad; and it looked like it would be contained within Wuhan in China and so the rest of the world was slow to react. But Covid-19 was very transmissable. Our efficient transport systems quickly made it a global concern and it wreaked havoc on health systems and economies around the world.
The early estimates of Covid-19 being fatal to 1% of those infected proved to be approximately correct; although the jury is still out on the true figure and may take years to establish. The 1% being hardest hit are unfortunately the most vulnerable in society; those with certain underlying health conditions. This is making Covid-19 particularly dangerous to those who are older. A graphic published in the Guardian 2/4/2020 showed that more than half of coronavirus deaths to have occurred in hospitals up to that date in England were among people aged 80 and over. Conversely less than 1% of the victims who died were under the age of 40.
In a sea of heartbreaking stories of people dying before their time during the pandemic I came across one particularly uplifting story. Rita Reynolds from Bramhall in Stockport was one of the 99% who recovered from Covid-19. This is particularly remarkable because she was aged 99 when she caught it. One of her relatives put her recovery down to the fact that she subsisted on marmalade sandwiches and biscuits.
Rita Reynolds was born in 1920 and belongs to the so called ‘Greatest Generation’. At birth she would have had a 1% chance of reaching the age of 100. The chance of reaching that age and coming through a Covid-19 diagnosis in her hundredth year is remarkable. Perhaps the pandemic food stock-pilers should be looking out for marmalade the next time they visit the supermarket.
Today the prospect of becoming a centenarian has much improved with a baby born in the UK in 2020 standing a 50% chance of reaching 100. In the year 2120 people of this yet unnamed generation will have lived through an unfathomable amount of change. The coronavirus pandemic in their birth year may or may not be remembered by history. It may be a defining moment or it may be over-shadowed by what is to come. At an individual level though many will grow-up without the presence of their grandparents and great-grandparents and that in itself will shape their generation. I hope they get to hear about the Greatest Generation and people like Rita Reynolds and Captain Tom. Who knows they may even try to recreate the joys of a good marmalade sandwich.
One Percent Blog 