Well, I am not sure about you and your teams but April has been another crazy month for me in my day job, rather occupied outside of that time representing our ASIS members and Chapter on numerous calls, as well as some level of return to normal activities. For me this was a return to coaching grass roots football.
April was filled with some unforgettable headlines:
With the very sad news regarding the passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, I know many of you will have shared this sadness and will have joined us privately in sending our condolences to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family for their loss.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s longstanding commitment to conservation issues and to the training and development of young people – as reflected in the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme – has stood the test the time and continues to resonate strongly across UK business today.
The guilty verdict in the trial of the former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year – a murder which awakened the world to the depths of the racial discrimination and social injustice faced by so many, and to the extent of progress that is still required to overcome it.
Covid is NOT getting any easier globally. However, in the UK there are glimmers but we must still remain cautious and still maintain Hands, Face, Space, Fresh Air good practice as COVID is:
- asymmetric: very different in different parts of the world
- volatile: changing very quickly – even within one country
- unjust: doing most harm to those who can least afford it
Of course, there are grounds for optimism. The world has now made almost one billion doses of vaccines against the virus, and while it is still working out how best to share them, this represents a major step forward.
However, at every turn it has been two steps forward and one step back. This has been underlined by events over the last week. Despite being more than a year into the pandemic, new records are still being set. In India, for example, a sudden and intense second wave has led to a record number of daily cases – more than 400,000 in April. In Brazil, over 412K reported deaths. In Mexico, the death toll soared to reach more than 300,000 in total. And parts of Eastern and Central Europe, including Poland and Hungary, have been experiencing record infections and deaths, placing the health services in these countries under intolerable strain.
