“I can’t put into words how much losing my dad has affected my life and my family’s lives. It feels like the foundation of our lives has just been ripped apart,” explains Safiah Ngah as we stand in front of the National COVID Memorial Wall in London, United Kingdom.
Similar sentiments are reflected in the thousands of painted hearts and messages that line the 500-metre wall along the River Thames. Each one marks a death, and a bereaved family coming to terms with the devastating – and often sudden – loss
of one of their loved ones to the disease.
“When we talk about losing somebody to COVID-19, that one life affects so many people. Nearly 180 000 people have died in the United Kingdom now. That means hundreds of thousands of bereaved family members,” Safiah tells us.
This week, WHO/Europe recorded the grim milestone of 2 million deaths from COVID-19 in the European Region.
The numbers of people that have died are staggering, as Lobby Akinnola, who lost his father to COVID-19 in 2020 emphasizes: “When you hear ‘2 million’, that should terrify everyone. A million people a year is insane. It shows just how
deadly the disease is and how unprepared we were. It really needs to be a point of reflection, when people need to say ‘how are we going to make sure this doesn’t happen again?’”.
But, the shocking milestone of 2 million deaths is also a reminder that the virus is still very much with us, as Elena Ciesco, who lost her father, Luigi, at the age of 79, is keen to stress: “People are fed up of hearing about COVID-19 and they
want life to go back to normal. But, life is not normal. The pandemic is not over because people are still dying. It may not be being publicized as much in the media, but the daily death rate from the disease is still too high”.
And as Lobby explains, we need to continue to take actions to combat COVID-19: “There is still value in doing things like wearing a mask if you are in an enclosed space. Yes, it’s a bit inconvenient, but it could save your life, or the life
of one of your family members. You do not want to learn the hard way. You might not cause pain for yourself, but think about the consequences for other people”.
Jean Adamson is also aware of the value of protective measures after her 98-year-old father caught COVID-19 in a care home, dying less than 24 hours after being admitted to hospital: “The death of my father from COVID-19 made me acutely aware of
contracting the virus. Having lost my dad the way that I did, it was very personal to me, so I have been ultra-cautious, especially around my grandchildren”.
Jean is also a great advocate for the COVID-19 vaccines: “Coming from a nursing background, there was no doubt in my mind that I would get the vaccine. But, also the fact that I lost my father meant I couldn’t wait to get it, so I had mine
fairly early in the rollout”.
Safiah too feels strongly about the need to retain protective measures: “If COVID-19 ceases to exist, if people aren’t catching it or dying from it, and if it becomes more like the common cold, then I probably wouldn’t feel the need
to wear a mask. But, that’s certainly not the case at the moment”.
It frustrates Safiah and many others we spoke to at the Wall that as restrictions have been lifted, many people are returning to their lives so quickly, as if nothing has happened.
“We’ve all lost so much over the past few years. Whether you’ve lost family members or your grandparents or just your social life – we’re all grieving, and I think we would do well to move forward with a sense of introspection
about what has been lost, rather than just continuing forward into the future without any sense of what we’ve experienced,” says Safiah.
“When people say, ‘Now we can get back to normal’, I want to scream ‘No, we can’t!’,” Lobby told us with passion. “Centuries ago, there was the Great Fire of London, in which most of the [wooden-built] city
was destroyed. After the fire, people realized they couldn’t carry on doing things the same way. They built back differently and built back stronger. We have to do the same. We have to learn the lessons from COVID-19,” he added.
As we leave, Lobby and Safiah tell us more about the significance of the National COVID Memorial Wall – not just as a remembrance of British lives lost, but also of other nationalities, living or visiting the city.
“This memorial is so beautiful and so important because it’s positioned next to an NHS [National Health Service] hospital and opposite [the Houses of Parliament] where many of the decisions are made,” says Safiah. “It is a really
powerful monument for a whole community of bereaved families. There are a lot of ways that we can remember my dad, pay tribute to him, but it’s a lovely thing to be able to come and see his heart on the Wall and to have that shared remembrance.”
And for those who doubt the seriousness of COVID-19, Lobby has this to say: “The Wall is a concrete reminder that this wasn’t made up. None of us chose how our loved ones died. And there’s no benefit to any of what has happened”.
Moving forward from 2 million deaths
Progress in the pandemic response so far tells us that the WHO European Region can exit the acute phase of the pandemic this year, but to do so we must:
protect people who are vulnerable to severe, life-threatening disease through continued use of infection prevention, vaccination, early detection and high-quality of care;
create stronger integrated surveillance systems that monitor and track the virus better, so we can more quickly and accurately identify its spread, as well as spot genomic changes that alter its characteristics significantly;
keep health system response capacities agile and ready to surge rapidly in case a new variant of concern – or even a new virus of pandemic potential – emerges;
tackle the long-term impacts of the pandemic – including the looming prospect of millions of people with post-COVID condition or ‘long COVID’ – along with the backlog of public health interventions that had to be postponed during
the crisis, such as cancer screening.