Like a cinema in continuous session

I know that at this point we are all reaching the maximum level of saturation on Covid-19 information, but I did not want to stop sharing these thoughts with you, and - of course - open comments to exchange what you want.

I don't think I stray too far from the general feeling if I call this surreal experience.

It's like being at war, but instead of the sounds of planes and bombs, a war of silence, isolation and loneliness.

We have seen it in the cinema hundreds of times: a malignant virus that escapes from a laboratory (there is no laboratory here, thank God) and begins to spread unstoppable.

Likewise, fortunately, this time around the virus is not necessarily deadly, but from what they say about the behavior and nature of viruses, it could very well have been.

So we can be relieved that this time it is a lottery and not a universal condemnation.

Probably what they are selling us as fifteen days of isolation ends up being a month or two, until we are sure that the level of infected is manageable, then almost all of us will face challenges in living together that we never think about. From the usual jokes about the couple (I've been talking to her for a while and it turns out that she is from the same city as me!) To the relationship with children or grandparents around the clock for many weeks, it will take great negotiation skills to establish common and private moments , conversations and the tone they should have, collaboration in housework ...

This time everything is different, because there is nowhere to go, there are no breaks, no breaks.

What began as an apocalyptic film has evolved into a variant of "The Experiment" or, for the most contemporary, Big Brother.

A group of people who know each other at various levels: some may not know each other at all and others may hate each other, forced to live together indefinitely. Anything could happen. Even if they have common blood!

Another problem is the economic one. A huge number of families live on weekly and even daily income: waiters, taxi drivers, cleaners, freelancers, haberdashery, hardware stores, fishmongers ...

All businesses depend on monthly income. For every company with the economic “muscle” to support personnel and expenses without producing, there are thousands of companies that will have to close, not temporarily, but permanently, because they have no way to overcome the hole in which their economic arrest will have sunk.

We were just coming out of a crisis that left savings and current debts running out of steam. Cut the income supply and in a few weeks there will be thousands of families in extreme poverty.

I am surprised by the slowness of the government in adopting measures that can relieve and reassure the population. If there was ever a time for action, this is it. But, as is customary in governments of any sign, the citizens are the last.

Why do people flee cities?

I know we all really know the answer, but I'll leave it here anyway.

Cities are by nature a hostile environment. It is a refractory structure that we have learned to establish relationships over, perhaps even as a compensatory measure for the inhumanity of concrete and asphalt.

When we fight an enemy, we all instinctively seek an environment that makes us feel safe, loved. Who can love apartment two on the seventh floor of number 75 on a street? It's an example, but I hope it illustrates what I mean.

In front of the enemy, if he is invisible and can kill - or leave him in bed for weeks - it is understandable that people turn to where they have happy memories, pleasant memories, people they identify with.

It is an instinctive response. When faced with the unknown, we sometimes react irrationally. Just as on this occasion the irrationality manifested itself in the fixation for toilet paper in the bathroom, it also moved to flee to a friendlier place, even if it means endangering everything we would like to preserve (if we thought about it? calmly).

Running away is wrong, because it increases the chances of spreading to places that, without our presence, could have been safe, but I understand why.

Do not mute the sound

One of the things we have to pray for is that the virus remains as we know it now. If a variant appeared (it doesn't even have to be worse) and we were to contain two different strains, everything would be exponentially complicated.

Expectations are that 80% of the population will end up infected, some will go through it without realizing it, others with a little cough, others will leave a defective respiratory system for the rest of their lives, and others will die.

Once the infection is caught, there is no drug that can kill it (until there is a vaccine) and you just have to wait for it to pass.

All we can do is stay away from each other and wash our hands often (with both soap and alcoholic gel) to try not to spread it. In this way, since almost everyone will have to go through it, when we touch we will have hospital services that can take care of us as we need.

I hope you don't pass it, and that if you have to pass it it will be mild.

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Note: Continuous session was called a form of film show, where the same tape was played over and over again, so that you could enter the cinema at any time and stay until you "merge" with where you started to watch.

Images: Unplash, Benetton