1/ A thread about disability and the pandemic, specifically epilepsy and hence not being able to drive.

2/ First off, I'm smart enough to know public transport is a big risk, so I take it very, very rarely indeed. Definitely not when community transmission is high, like now. To be clear, this is not an attempt at a sob story.

3/ Yes, certain things can be inconvenient - large grocery shops (although I can mitigate that with online deliveries), getting to medical appointments, general other stuff. Bottom line: if I need it, I have to walk to get it. My only safe option.

4/ Luckily, I'm a hiker, and I generally would have walked a lot anyway. Last year though, more than usual. About 1500 miles. It adds up when one walks for pleasure and one also has to walk out of necessity. Not sure how I'd get a prompt Covid test if I needed one though.

5/ However, since I work in biosecurity, there are serious advantages. As anyone involved in security will tell you, if you want to know a place, the best way is to walk it. It's how you get a feel for what analysts refer to as, 'pattern of life', sometimes, 'ground knowledge'.

6/ In other words, people like me, who walk all the time, see and understand the city in a way others do not. During the first lockdown in March, I could see the lack of compliance up close. The nighttime meetings, people 'bumping into' one another. All par for the course.

7/ I also saw criminality grow. The pervasive smell of weed, where one would never have smelt it before. The addicts looking to score, gauging if I was worth mugging. Evidence of anxiety: discarded empty blister packs of diazepam everywhere.

8/ I'm firmly middle class. I live in a middle class area. But, like most middle class areas in Belfast, one has to pass through bad / deprived areas to get to the city centre. Drivers often don't see these urban landscapes in the middle; they just drive through them.

9/ Those of us who have to walk see them. Specifically, we see how they've changed during the pandemic. More unemployment, more paramilitary influence. More underage drinking. And house parties. So many house parties. Walk long enough in a city and you see the underworld of it.

10/ The bars that are still obviously serving; the takeaways that still let regulars sit in. An occult nighttime economy. Walking past office buildings at night and seeing security guards totally ignoring social distancing or masking; the hotel with staff drinking in the back.

11/ It all adds up. The community transmission that can't really be quantified, but can be observed. The overheard conversations on the street, or carried from open front doors. Lots of covert planning to break the regulations, lots of conspiracy theories.

12/ Now, with the latest lockdown, the increased police patrols, but realising - as I did tonight - that their reach is restricted by the fact they stay in vehicles. Most of the dodgy stuff I've seen happens in pedestrian areas, alleys, where no vehicle can reach.

13/ Concluding. There are two pandemics. One you see from a car, the other you can only see on foot. Belfast has become a more dangerous, more threatening place since the pandemic started. And over the next few months, it's going to get worse /ends