Today is Saturday, sunny and mild for the first days of March and last night during my midnight insomnia I was thinking that as of two days ago the Federal Government, which I have been told takes over all health decisions when it is a matter of national security and safety, decided that in order to try to contain the spread of the now infamous corona virus also known as Covid-19, some measures would be taken that affect me directly. First and foremost, they are meant for all people over 65, so there I can’t escape, then to add up to the risky business, other criteria are diabetes, hypertension, cancer, cardiovascular problems and chronic respiratory problems. Two out of these and you are liable of falling ill. If you are young and do not have any of them you are liable also, but the Federal Government is not aiming at you directly, although should you sneeze beware as ostracism will probably be immediate.
The recommendation for the group in danger, so they say, is to stay home, avoid as much as possible social contacts and stay at more then two meters of the closest human being – animals do not seem to transmit or catch the virus, so you can cuddle your pet but not the neighbour’s as it might have been touched by an infected person. If you absolutely have to do some shopping, do so in the lull hours of the shopping day or have it delivered – should the shops do it despite the risk of contamination for the delivery person, of course do NOT shake hands with any one – greetings with the head, a kick or but contacts is ok, the latter as long as it cannot be construed as sexual harassment, otherwise you can end up in jail in a more than crowded place, without masks and no hydro alcohol sanitizer! You can also greet other humans with an elbow contact, but make sure it is not the elbow they sneeze into when coughing, as the material would have kept the droplets of the sneeze and since nobody really knows a thing about the virus, it is not known the duration of its “shelf-life” so if your counterpart sneezed a while ago and greets you with elbow shake, your worn cloths could get infected and again, you are doomed!
Some days ago I saw a video where four individuals were playing cards or maghong or the like, all connected via their phones, from their homes and thus avoiding physical contact. Not bad as an idea but I guess a little less fun than if you are all together sharing a drink – each with a glass, not actually sharing from the same glass, please.
Meetings of more than 1000 people are officially forbidden in this country, but some cantons have reduced the number of attendees in order to safeguard the participants and many many meetings, shows, theatres, concerts and social activities, as well as sporting events have been cancelled. In some places schools are closed for a week or two or until further notice, so basically the world is coming to a stand still and if you still have to go to work and here GO is the key word, pray you do not have kids that do not go to school, elderly people who cannot go to help you because then you would have to report sick or ask for holidays in order to keep an eye on your family.
All of these measures may be logical, even really necessary but on the other hand I believe they are provoking mass hysteria and panic, as proven by the attack on supermarket stocks of toilet paper and dry edibles. I just saw a photo of a person that bought enough toilet paper to last her and her family for at least a year, we have all seen the photos of shelves empty of rice and pasta – even if pasta might have been made in Italy, one of the biggest centres of contamination in Europe and rice may come from China, the supposed point of origin of all these problems.
Most medical experts and politicians recommend that the best prevention for the transmission of the virus is simply to wash our hands frequently and well, not just the tip of our fingers but a thorough wash, like scrubbing before an operation or after touching some disgusting substance. On this matter I have already seen two videos where young artists use music and “dance” to teach the population how to do it, mimicking the washing of fingers, palms, inter-digital spaces, nails and fingers again, rubbing vigorously and then drying with a non contaminated tissue that is discarded afterwards.
Nobody knows how this will end or when, but I believe none of us living now remembers the Spanish flue of 1918 or even less the black pest in other places of the planet, but for me the scary part is the unknown, the fact that no matter who speaks about it, they tend to agree on washing our hands and nothing else. The origin is not clear, transmission modes and rates aren’t either, active life of the virus outside the human body a mystery and even the symptoms can be similar to those of the common cold that kills several thousand of people every year, and again the people at risk are the elderly – relatively natural if one considers that we have weaker defences and maybe health problems that are not conductive to a strong and active defence of the virulent attacks of this little animals that surround us.
At any rate my friends and readers, I might be wrong in all my ranting but keep in good health, stop kissing all passers-by and first and foremost, wash your hands well and often.
(March 2020)
Mementos of my life 