At first we laughed at ourselves. The way people looked disapprovingly at a bulging shopping bag. The moral agony about whether to take the last tin of kidney beans. The jokes about toilet paper.

None of it was real for me until the day the airlines said they were cancelling all international flights. I had to hear it on three channels before I believed it. The shots of people on hospital trollies were scary, but illness is normal. This was so outlandish it was hardly even frightening.