Charlotte Bauer | Are we getting too cavalier about Covid?

Although the pandemic is considered over, it is way too soon to start breathing sighs of relief all over other passengers on planes, writes Charlotte Bauer.

My WhatsApp pings with a photo from a friend on the morning he’s booked to fly to Berlin. The photo is of a positive Covid test. ‘I’ve got Covid,’ the accompanying message reads, quite unnecessarily: we all know what the double pink lines in the little white window mean.

I reply with the jaw-drop emoji and add a row of crying faces for good measure. I don’t ask my friend if he feels ill – that’s beside the point. My ag shame is for the fact that he’ll have to cancel his trip. He types back, ‘Nah, still going. Just a sniffle.’