So it has come to this...
I can't really remember the first time I heard of covid-19...or corona, as it's commonly referred to. It was probably somewhere in January, and pertaining to China. I didn't take it seriously. To a degree, I still don't. But I'm starting to become a minority.
In any case...I never dismissed the virus or its thread, but as with so many things, I chose to ignore it. 'their problem', I thought. Sucks to be a Wuhan inhabitant. When the province went into quarantine and China started taking measures is when I started to get interested. The entirety of China is...well...LARGE. Of course it would spread, but certainly things were under control, right? Right?
The answer was, as it would slowly spell out, "not really". As soon as it started dripping into Europe and other continents, I started suspecting it'd get worse a lot before it would get better. The reason? I've played Plague inc. In it, you play as a virus set to destroy the entire world's population. The gameplay is basic at best, but makes up for it in atmosphere and style. And before you play your "it's just a game" argument card: the game is very acclaimed by scientists for its realistic approach to how a virus spreads (which, apart from the starting point, is out of your hands). Ideally, a long period happens before anyone notices it's there (I've managed to have 100% of a country infected before anyone noticed anything), a period in which people barely have symptoms (if at all). As in real life, the virus is initially somewhat contained within a country, but once it spreads to somewhere else, a "patient zero" usually sets off a surge of infections before the growth slows down.
...and that's more or less where we are, now. Italy got hit pretty hard, but it's clear that the rest of Europe is in its trail. Meaning: it's going to get pretty rough very, very soon. For the entirety of Europe (sorry UK...you're in this mess just as much as the rest of us
). And the rest of the world, though I'll get to that.
The first real consequence I found was in a company mail. As per company policy, kissing and shaking hands was discouraged, washing hands regularly encouraged. Colleagues and I considered it rather tongue-in-cheek. Every cough was immediately "yup...I'm infected. Better go into quarantine ". And up to last weekend, I played Pandemic (the board game) with friends over a Corona beer.
I mean, sure: the infection rate grew (and still grows) exponentially. But where in Plague Inc. you can mutate the virus to become more deadly, become stronger or spread faster, this part isn't exactly happening(1). So what'll happen is that some people will get it but then recover. Because yes, the corona virus is much more deadly than a common flu (up to ten times or more), but even so: the victims are the elderly. Anyone below 60 or even 70 runs the risk of getting ill but will recover in the end. We currently don't have antibodies to fight this stuff, but our own bodies will start making it to fight it when we get infected (in a way, the symptoms of a disease is a way of your body of saying "whoah! slow down there. We've got higher priorities than whatever it is you want to be doing with your body, so stay the fuck put, okay?" ). that's why we'll recover and be stronger for it in the end. Though I should add that it'll take some more time - a few weeks IIRC - that we can still infect others afterward.
So...why the stress? Well, for one, 3.4% mortality rate still results in a gruesome amount of deaths, given the size of current world's population. The second is perhaps even more alarming: to find a cure or vaccin takes far more time than we currently have (2021 if the "speed procedure" is followed). Until that time, our elderly are pretty much sitting ducks (their chances of dying are an awful lot higher than ours). So preventing them from ever getting it is paramount.
And when it comes to Belgium, of course the first death is also an important ethical milestone. We had three. That sort of thing sets people off. I mean...I'm not sure if I got around to writing a piece on Belgium politics, but the very short gist of it is that we've got a Flemish North half (Dutch speaking), a southern Wallonian half (French) and a federal entity that encompasses all. Like a certain American country, we've got a political party that gotten big by Blaming Others (okay, okay: we got two. But the one blaming foreigners got overshadowed by the ones blaming the southern half of the country).As such, politics in Belgium is a bit of civilized mud slinging, further propagated that the southern half votes politically left and my half (unfortunately) votes politically right. The result was a divide and an unwillingness to finally form a government over half a year since we voted(2).
Until a couple days ago, this sort of sh** continued. Our federal government decreed/discouraged public events above 1000 people. Of course, when in the midst of organising these events, it's normal to ask questions (what if you don't know how many will come? will there be compensation? Will this be valuable for our insurance? And so on). Unfortunately, said Blame Others political party also played this game, criticizing the federal government rather than helping and enforcing.
Then these three deaths occurred, and the country changed. Most if not all venues are cancelled or postponed. Visiting retirement homes (which Wallonia forbade days before Flanders) is now prohibited in entire Belgium. People should use teleworking as much as possible (if possible, of course). Bars and restaurants should close, as do most if not all cultural events. So do shops that aren't pharmacies or grocery stores. And where a couple universities had closed doors as preventive measures, schools are now closed for at least the upcoming three weeks.
It's uncertain what'll happen in my company. We'll close at least part of our stores, and to be frank, we should close the majority (damnit: this isn't "an advice" anymore...we're risking fines if we break the law). I'm in anticipation of a mail to that regard from our board of directors, but chances are very high I'll have to work from home (if not for any other reason, public transportation is strongly discouraged by the government, even though it remains to be available).
I...don't like it, to be honest. Sure, I can sleep an extra hour, but I don't "just sit behind my desk all day". Many tasks I can either not do or much harder. And while that's okay for a couple days, it'll probably be weeks before I see my colleagues again.
That said: it certainly could be much worse. For one: our daughter isn't going to school yet. The closing of schools is heavily contested because not everyone can work from home, and since exposure with elders needs to be discouraged they can't really take over either. So schools close...but remain open to provide shelter for kids with no other option. I'd criticize if I had a better option. But I don't.
*sigh*
These rulings are unprecedented, not only in my generation but also for my parents (3). But they have to be taken. Italy is a grim example of what'll happen if we don't. It's our way of saying "BRING IT ON, STUPID VIRUS! WE'RE READY!!!!".
I...guess I could end this rambling at this, but I'm afraid I've got to jab at my favorite punching bag: Donald Trump. As is his prerogative, he chains together lies and half truths. Blaming Obama while ignoring that he got rid of the pandemic treating department.Downplaying effects, ignoring warnings from experts and, of course, playing the blame game. If it isn't the democrats (his own son claims that democrats would be willing to suffer millions of deaths to hurt his father's election chances), it's China (which is hard to argue against because it certainly originated there). And...Europe? Yup...Trump forbade any Europeans to enter the US. It would be rather ironic that the very first time I could say he made a tough decision correctly when it's a decision I would disavow in any other situation, but that wouldn't make it a wrong decision. But he screwed up in both the timing (a no flight embargo would have helped BEFORE the virus entered the country. Now it's almost a warning sign for Europeans not to get infected in the US) and the details (not for the first time, his government is contradicting whatever he says immediately).
As a result, the virus will spread through the country like wildfire. The rumor that Trump himself might have caught the virus because of his lack of security is wishful thinking (and below the belt, to be honest), but I think it's about the only way you'll avoid mass deaths.
Oh, and of course the draconian safety measures. That'll be inevitable. Not just for the US, but for most if not every country on the planet.
Best of luck of making it through, y'all...
(1): to be clear, it's more complicated: viruses mutate all the time. But a virus has no reason to kill its host (rather the contrary), so it remains more or less stable
(2): to make matters worse: as a flemish people, I literally cannot vote for political parties from Wallonian, or vice versa. But I'll leave the political part at that for this thread. What you should remember is that it's a mess.
(3): the spanish flu was also a pandemic...but at that time the world was far from being as interconnected as it currently is.
I can't really remember the first time I heard of covid-19...or corona, as it's commonly referred to. It was probably somewhere in January, and pertaining to China. I didn't take it seriously. To a degree, I still don't. But I'm starting to become a minority.
In any case...I never dismissed the virus or its thread, but as with so many things, I chose to ignore it. 'their problem', I thought. Sucks to be a Wuhan inhabitant. When the province went into quarantine and China started taking measures is when I started to get interested. The entirety of China is...well...LARGE. Of course it would spread, but certainly things were under control, right? Right?
The answer was, as it would slowly spell out, "not really". As soon as it started dripping into Europe and other continents, I started suspecting it'd get worse a lot before it would get better. The reason? I've played Plague inc. In it, you play as a virus set to destroy the entire world's population. The gameplay is basic at best, but makes up for it in atmosphere and style. And before you play your "it's just a game" argument card: the game is very acclaimed by scientists for its realistic approach to how a virus spreads (which, apart from the starting point, is out of your hands). Ideally, a long period happens before anyone notices it's there (I've managed to have 100% of a country infected before anyone noticed anything), a period in which people barely have symptoms (if at all). As in real life, the virus is initially somewhat contained within a country, but once it spreads to somewhere else, a "patient zero" usually sets off a surge of infections before the growth slows down.
...and that's more or less where we are, now. Italy got hit pretty hard, but it's clear that the rest of Europe is in its trail. Meaning: it's going to get pretty rough very, very soon. For the entirety of Europe (sorry UK...you're in this mess just as much as the rest of us
). And the rest of the world, though I'll get to that.The first real consequence I found was in a company mail. As per company policy, kissing and shaking hands was discouraged, washing hands regularly encouraged. Colleagues and I considered it rather tongue-in-cheek. Every cough was immediately "yup...I'm infected. Better go into quarantine
". And up to last weekend, I played Pandemic (the board game) with friends over a Corona beer.I mean, sure: the infection rate grew (and still grows) exponentially. But where in Plague Inc. you can mutate the virus to become more deadly, become stronger or spread faster, this part isn't exactly happening(1). So what'll happen is that some people will get it but then recover. Because yes, the corona virus is much more deadly than a common flu (up to ten times or more), but even so: the victims are the elderly. Anyone below 60 or even 70 runs the risk of getting ill but will recover in the end. We currently don't have antibodies to fight this stuff, but our own bodies will start making it to fight it when we get infected (in a way, the symptoms of a disease is a way of your body of saying "whoah! slow down there. We've got higher priorities than whatever it is you want to be doing with your body, so stay the fuck put, okay?" ). that's why we'll recover and be stronger for it in the end. Though I should add that it'll take some more time - a few weeks IIRC - that we can still infect others afterward.
So...why the stress? Well, for one, 3.4% mortality rate still results in a gruesome amount of deaths, given the size of current world's population. The second is perhaps even more alarming: to find a cure or vaccin takes far more time than we currently have (2021 if the "speed procedure" is followed). Until that time, our elderly are pretty much sitting ducks (their chances of dying are an awful lot higher than ours). So preventing them from ever getting it is paramount.
And when it comes to Belgium, of course the first death is also an important ethical milestone. We had three. That sort of thing sets people off. I mean...I'm not sure if I got around to writing a piece on Belgium politics, but the very short gist of it is that we've got a Flemish North half (Dutch speaking), a southern Wallonian half (French) and a federal entity that encompasses all. Like a certain American country, we've got a political party that gotten big by Blaming Others (okay, okay: we got two. But the one blaming foreigners got overshadowed by the ones blaming the southern half of the country).As such, politics in Belgium is a bit of civilized mud slinging, further propagated that the southern half votes politically left and my half (unfortunately) votes politically right. The result was a divide and an unwillingness to finally form a government over half a year since we voted(2).
Until a couple days ago, this sort of sh** continued. Our federal government decreed/discouraged public events above 1000 people. Of course, when in the midst of organising these events, it's normal to ask questions (what if you don't know how many will come? will there be compensation? Will this be valuable for our insurance? And so on). Unfortunately, said Blame Others political party also played this game, criticizing the federal government rather than helping and enforcing.
Then these three deaths occurred, and the country changed. Most if not all venues are cancelled or postponed. Visiting retirement homes (which Wallonia forbade days before Flanders) is now prohibited in entire Belgium. People should use teleworking as much as possible (if possible, of course). Bars and restaurants should close, as do most if not all cultural events. So do shops that aren't pharmacies or grocery stores. And where a couple universities had closed doors as preventive measures, schools are now closed for at least the upcoming three weeks.
It's uncertain what'll happen in my company. We'll close at least part of our stores, and to be frank, we should close the majority (damnit: this isn't "an advice" anymore...we're risking fines if we break the law). I'm in anticipation of a mail to that regard from our board of directors, but chances are very high I'll have to work from home (if not for any other reason, public transportation is strongly discouraged by the government, even though it remains to be available).
I...don't like it, to be honest. Sure, I can sleep an extra hour, but I don't "just sit behind my desk all day". Many tasks I can either not do or much harder. And while that's okay for a couple days, it'll probably be weeks before I see my colleagues again.
That said: it certainly could be much worse. For one: our daughter isn't going to school yet. The closing of schools is heavily contested because not everyone can work from home, and since exposure with elders needs to be discouraged they can't really take over either. So schools close...but remain open to provide shelter for kids with no other option. I'd criticize if I had a better option. But I don't.
*sigh*
These rulings are unprecedented, not only in my generation but also for my parents (3). But they have to be taken. Italy is a grim example of what'll happen if we don't. It's our way of saying "BRING IT ON, STUPID VIRUS! WE'RE READY!!!!".
I...guess I could end this rambling at this, but I'm afraid I've got to jab at my favorite punching bag: Donald Trump. As is his prerogative, he chains together lies and half truths. Blaming Obama while ignoring that he got rid of the pandemic treating department.Downplaying effects, ignoring warnings from experts and, of course, playing the blame game. If it isn't the democrats (his own son claims that democrats would be willing to suffer millions of deaths to hurt his father's election chances), it's China (which is hard to argue against because it certainly originated there). And...Europe? Yup...Trump forbade any Europeans to enter the US. It would be rather ironic that the very first time I could say he made a tough decision correctly when it's a decision I would disavow in any other situation, but that wouldn't make it a wrong decision. But he screwed up in both the timing (a no flight embargo would have helped BEFORE the virus entered the country. Now it's almost a warning sign for Europeans not to get infected in the US) and the details (not for the first time, his government is contradicting whatever he says immediately).
As a result, the virus will spread through the country like wildfire. The rumor that Trump himself might have caught the virus because of his lack of security is wishful thinking (and below the belt, to be honest), but I think it's about the only way you'll avoid mass deaths.
Oh, and of course the draconian safety measures. That'll be inevitable. Not just for the US, but for most if not every country on the planet.
Best of luck of making it through, y'all...
(1): to be clear, it's more complicated: viruses mutate all the time. But a virus has no reason to kill its host (rather the contrary), so it remains more or less stable
(2): to make matters worse: as a flemish people, I literally cannot vote for political parties from Wallonian, or vice versa. But I'll leave the political part at that for this thread. What you should remember is that it's a mess.
(3): the spanish flu was also a pandemic...but at that time the world was far from being as interconnected as it currently is.
