Kids need reassurance on Covid-19 – and so do we | Blaise Tapp

We live in an age when we can turn the central heating on at home from our desk at work, and we never have to miss our favourite TV show.

At the time of writing, several thousand people have died from Coronavirus, or Covid-19, and infected many more in six out of the seven continents, with grim warnings that it isn’t going to get better anytime soon.

But nobody, not even really clever people, can give us any firm answers. The UK government seems to be adopting the Lance Corporal Jones ‘don’t panic’ approach, which involves saying very little publicly, except for advising us all to wash our hands.

Financial markets are plummeting, sporting events have been cancelled, and schools and factories closed.

If professors and prime ministers aren’t able to provide us with firm answers then what hope have parents got of assuaging the fears of our children?

Coronavirus is the talk of playgrounds everywhere, and despite the measured way the message is being conveyed across many schools, there is genuine concern among the young and impressionable.

If she could, my 10-year-old would up sticks to Antarctica – the only corner of the globe that has escaped its reach.

While we all want engaged children, who are aware of their surroundings and the dangers that they might pose, we don’t want them to be terrified of going about the business of growing up.

I have already failed with my attempts at giving some much-needed context, by pointing out that fewer than 100,000 of the world’s population of nearly eight billion, have caught something that is only likely to cause you serious harm if you are very old or have a serious illness.

I thought I had struck a chord when I parroted the fact that, each year people die from flu in the UK, but was quickly reminded ‘we have a jab for flu dad – we have to wait a year for the vaccine for this’.

I suspect I might have to work a little bit harder if I want to bring some certainty to the Tapp household.