I was reading through some of the older posts on this blog, as one does. How quaint the earliest ones on the coronavirus now seem. I think the first is from the end of January, at which time I was well aware of the virus’s existence and was concerned chiefly about the irritation of wearing a mask while travelling and, after that, about the possibility that it would spread to Pakistan from its travel links with China. Well, I’m now used to wearing a mask when travelling, the virus is in Pakistan (though apparently not from China – however I remain sceptical of this account), and the entire world has changed. Back then I thought I’d be in Taiwan for a couple of months and here I am, four months later, with two more months to go before my visa expires, and somewhat concerned if I will be able to go anywhere at all. I had thought I was more aware than many others. As a journalist I’d written pieces about the bird flu back in 2004 (now better known as H5N1), and the GF had worked all out on a project during the swine flu (H1N1) days in 2009. But I didn’t really expect the world to be turned upside down, far from it.
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