I’m writing this post from the heart. From the deep, deep depths of my closed off, unfeeling heart. You need to stay inside. Stop bending the rules to fit yourself, and stop being selfish.

In the case of a pandemic such as COVID-19, it’s increasingly important to be seen to overreact, than underreact.

I’m begging you, stay inside. I’ve been locked away, barely leaving my front door to put the bins out, and I haven’t seen my closest family for a month today.

I’m struggling mentally and I know I’m not alone to be the only one crying at their desk while fixing client websites and generally working from home. But it’s my new normal, and you have to make it your new normal too.

Stop making Coronavirus about you, and about how “you’re healthy & young” so “you’re not likely to suffer much”. If you’re asymptomatic for the foreseeable, you’re still likely to carry a good strain of the virus. Which you will then pass on to others, who can also be carriers not sufferers, and so forth, until it hits someone.

And I can probably bet that 90% of those who currently are laying sunbathing, will suddenly start giving a damn as soon as someone they’re close to starts dying.

It’s best to act as if you’ve already been in contact with Coronavirus, and that you’ve got the illness, than how people are currently acting.

It’s unfortunate that I’m from a family of keyworkers:

• My sister: A domiciliary carer.
• My mother: A domiciliary carer.
• My father: Factory worker, producing parts for food and medicine.
• My uncle: NHS worker.

I’m petrified that every day, I’m going to get a message saying that someone close to me has the virus. And it’s even scarier that there’s people out there still visiting friends, still sitting in fields, still not giving a damn.

There’s people out there who feel like the Government are being too strict. That they’re “imposing on their individual freedoms”. When, I as one of the biggest anti-Tories, am in support of the restrictions put in place and feel that despite being a dispicable party, they wouldn’t put strict measures in place at all unless they had to.

And in comparison to other countries (not looking towards the US), we’ve still got quite relaxed policies in place. We’re still allowed out to shop, we’re still allowed to walk our dogs, we’re still allowed in our gardens, we’re still allowed to go for an hours exercise a day.

These measures may not stay in place for long, either getting stricter due to the sheer amount of (dare I say it) idiots who keep going outside. Or, they could end sooner rather than later because everyone decides for once in their damn lives to stay inside and do as they’re told for the benefit of everyone.

I’ve never been proud to be British. I’ve never understood why I should be. It’s even worse now.

Stay. The Damn. Inside.