The new Chief Medical Officer, Breda Smyth, recent published an open letter directed at older people within the Irish community.
In it, she encourages people to return to doing the things that they love, but abandoned during covid, and specifically to “re-join local clubs or activities or get involved in the local community”. She draws attention to the benefits of these social activities for both mental AND physical health, and the adverse effects of loneliness on us all. Coincidentally, this same topic is addressed in a recent TV advert by Healthy Ireland, entitled Hello Again World … and bridge features as one of the activities to which the participant joyfully returns. (The CBAI played our small part in this advertising campaign, by loaning the producers the bridge equipment and giving them some advice on the set-up.)
If there are any members of your club still reluctant to return to live bridge, you may be doing them a service if you draw these information materials to their attention. Obviously COVID-19 is still with us, and some people may consider the risks still to be too high. But for most of us, vaccination minimises our risk, and, as the CMO herself puts it, “we cannot allow it (covid) to steal more years from us”.