For most, the cloistered existence of Covid lockdowns are a period happily forgotten – but Karl Knights is only just emerging from self-isolation.
The poet and writer has continued to protect himself from the outside world for five long years because he is immuno-suppressed, meaning he has an increased risk of life-threatening complications from Covid-19 infections.
It is only now that he has tentatively started venturing outside his house. And even then, it is on just a handful of occasions that he has risked it.
Echoing what many experienced several years ago now, he said he was finally experiencing the feeling ‘everyone had when they came out of lockdown and they could hug people and see people again’.
He added: ‘Five years later, I am having that moment now.’
Like millions of people around the world, Mr Knights shut himself off from the world in March 2020.
Recalling the ‘scary’ moment he knew his life was ‘about to change’, he said: ‘It was one of those pivotal kind of moments, where I could sense something was going to shift and my life wouldn’t be exactly the same for a little while.’
In the UK, the three national lockdowns and other tiered restrictions were completely lifted in July 2021, 16 months after the nightmare began.
Karl Knights is immuno-suppressed, meaning he has an increased risk of life-threatening complications from Covid-19 infections
It is only now that he has tentatively started venturing outside his house after going into isolation during the pandemic
But for Mr Knights, 29, who has cerebral palsy, it was barely underway. As the world slowly returned to normal, he continued hiding away at his home in Leiston, Suffolk.
The ending of the legal requirement to self-isolate if suffering from Covid and the ditching of free mass testing in April 2022 was described by him as ‘a sad and frightening day to be a disabled person’.
‘The world just got a lot smaller and more isolated for shielders,’ he wrote on social media at the time.
For Christmas that year, he wrote: ‘Around the holiday season, special occasions like birthdays, it can be tough.
‘I’m lucky that I still have family members in the house still, so I see them and talk to them.’
He also spoke gratefully of Zoom and other means of staying in touch with loved ones, even if not in person.
‘One of the few blessings is I’m glad this horrible event and all this shielding is happening in this moment, where we have this connectivity,’ he said.
‘I’m grateful for it, especially at this time of year.’
Mr Knights – whose self-isolation was on the recommendation of his GP – has also had to put up with cruel online trolls who belittled his plight.
Tweeting in July 2023 about his fourth birthday in isolation, he told followers: ‘I’m still here, as virtual events vanish and isolation deepens’
Like millions of people around the world, Mr Knights shut himself off from the world in March 2020
But shortly afterwards, he added: ‘Just a quick note to say that there’s some virulent replies to the above tweet from pandemic deniers, ranging from anti-vaxxer hogwash to casually thrown about ableist slurs.’
Almost another two years on and – apart from brief forays into the outside world to receive inoculations – he finally feels able to allow himself more freedom, although still severely limited compared to others.
‘It’s nice but I am still more cautious than most,’ he said.
There are approximately 500,000 people in the UK who suffer from suppressed immune systems, leaving their bodies struggling to produce antibodies. This means vaccines offer little or no protection, so they remain vulnerable to coronavirus.
Peter Opensaw, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, said he was aware of ‘a very few people who are still self-isolating’.
He added: ‘It’s life-changing for people to have to undergo this type of isolation, so it’s important that they discuss it on a case by case basis with their doctor to see if the degree of isolation they are subjecting themselves to is warranted.’
