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I’VE always been proud to be British.
But never more so than over the past couple of months.
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Everywhere I look, ordinary people who have just gone through an exceptionally gruelling year are going above and beyond the call of duty to make life that little bit better for their communities.
There are the ever-chirpy mums who have been delivering food to their elderly neighbours for six months straight — in between juggling home schooling and home working.
The retired seamstresses who’ve been spending their free time making reusable masks to give away to the homeless.
And the countless pubs who’ve uncomplainingly reimagined their businesses to make socially distanced Sunday lunches not only possible, but fun too.
And their heroic efforts have not been in vain.
Doctors think the main reason deaths have plummeted in recent weeks is because by sticking to the rules on masks, handwashing and social distancing, we are giving each other smaller doses of the virus and getting less ill.
Yet regrettably, scattered among the thousands of everyday heroes there is a cohort of Brits letting the side down.
According to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, the dramatic new spike in cases has been pinpointed to the under 25s — and more specifically, “socially starved 17 to 21-year-olds in affluent areas” who, it seems, just can’t resist the pull of raves and house parties.
Now don’t get me wrong, as a twentysomething, I’ve found myself sympathising with Generation Z rather a lot over the past few months.
It has always struck me as grossly unfair that though their chances of getting seriously ill with the virus are slim, they are the ones bearing the brunt of the fallout from Covid.
A third of 18 to 24-year-old employees lost jobs or were furloughed compared to one in six 25 to 54-year-olds.
Plus, 35 per cent of non-full-time student 18 to 24-year-old employees are now earning less than they did prior to the outbreak.
And it’s not just their finances that are in a pickle.
Most partners living separately prior to the outbreak had the option to move in together when lockdown began.
But the youngest couples, still living with their parents, were condemned to six long, miserable months without so much as a comforting hug from their lovers.
And that’s before we even get into the A level fiasco.
TOUGH TIMES
But tough though times have been for the under-21s, they have always been in the privileged position of having time on their side.
However dark things got, they’ve known from the beginning that for them, coronavirus will one day be a distant memory.
A vaccine will almost definitely be found, the recession will (eventually) come to an end — and in 50 years they will be telling their grandchildren about the weird months of 2020 when the Prime Minister banned families from hugging.
The elderly and those with underlying health conditions have no such comfort blanket.
Yes, they know that the world will keep turning after 2020.
But if they catch Coronavirus, it could be a world without them in it.
Which is why, from the bottom of my heart, I’m begging any 17 to 21-year-olds reading this to hold firm just a little longer.
I know what it’s like to crave a night out. I really do.
But, unfortunately, Hancock is right when he says that every time you give in to that temptation, you are putting your grandparents, your parents and your neighbours at risk.
That might sound like politician scaremongering.
But it isn’t.
In France and Spain, a spike in young people catching the disease has already led directly to a spike in deaths among the elderly and vulnerable.
And by driving a rise in cases, these short-sighted people are prolonging the lockdown and the destruction of businesses that they presumably hope to work in one day.
The virus has stolen 2020 from us.
And if 2020 was the year you planned to sit your A levels, have the summer to end all summers and start university in style with a drunken Freshers’ week, I don’t blame you for feeling peeved.
But unless we ALL stick to the social-distancing rules, wear those pesky masks — even if they smudge our make-up — and wash our hands until they’re raw, this miserable disease will steal 2021 from us too.
So next time your mate asks you to a house party or a top-secret rave for a bit of a dance and “to unwind”, grit your teeth and just say no.
Do it for yourselves, because while the virus circulates, the recession continues, and getting on the career ladder during a recession is no fun at all.
And if you can’t do it for yourself, do it for your gran.
Her life is truly in your hands.
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