Wheelies

We have been closed in the house for a week already.  I have been out twice - once for groceries and once for the pharmacy.  We decided to give the kids a short breather too.  No park, no walk. Just a little break on our dead-end street, where there was no traffic and no exposure to other people.

I've had a lot of well wishes from my friends back home in America and here on Blip.  Thank you to everyone for reaching out.  Maybe is a good time to update everyone as I mostly done only in messages and phone calls.

Well, it is scarey.

I am going through levels of maturing this new experience and living day to day.  At least publically I try to stay upbeat.  Personally it is difficult to swallow at times.  Fear and anxiety for the future - my personal health, my family's health, my work - stability - future plans, global politics, the loss of liberties...

Italy is in a bad situation and is progressing very quickly to other parts of Europe and the world.  There are some good lessons to be learned starting with China and most other Asiatic countries neighboring China who have had better success than I think we have had. 

The first point is to underline the importance of social distancing and testing.  Did we take it serious enough as a family?  I think we did.  I've been homeworking since the first outbreak.  We still moved about, but were very careful about who we were in contact and the situations we put ourselves into. The last two weeks have been sobering to see how fast the numbers are going up and how the lockdown has become increasingly severe.  

Up until a week ago, the lockdown was limited to the communities where the virus outbreak was reported.  I think most people knew the importance of what was going on, but a lot of people were also less informed or ignorant of how fast it can spread or limited to older age groups.  There honestly wasn't that much strong information or a single source that was trustworthy.  When we came back last weekend after learning about the extension of the lockdown to all of Lombardia, I saw groups of people out in the streets partying and bars still open late into the wee hours. There had been a run on the trains earlier in the night as people tried to get out of town creating other types of grouping of people and risking further spread of the disease.  I was flabbergasted.

I wish Italy had done more sooner and was better prepared for extensive testing.  Water under the bridge now.  New cases and the number of deaths are still increasing day by day at an alarming rate.  A reporter yesterday shared on Facebook the obituary page from Bergamo newspaper at the end of February which was a page and half, yesterday it was 10 pages.  That really sank in.  The percentage of younger people with the Covid-19 disease is not insignificant either.  It is a war in the hospitals which are at the limit to cope with the numbers and resources - both medical staff, machines and rooms.  It is not a good time to have any kind of medical need or existing conditions which could require an intervention at the hospital.  Something that was maybe insignificant or manageable is now much riskier and dangerous as all resources are directed to the Coronavirus.

For now, I wish all my family, friends and blippers to stay healthy, stay safe.  Stay at home if you can and god bless if you have a job that requires you to go out.  Follow the general guidelines to limit your exposure.  I personally believe it will be around for quite a while from what has been learned so far.  It is so important to limit the spread of this virus right now to reduce the impact to the health system we are facing and to garner a bit more time to search for a prevention or a vaccine and to limit the tsunami that is currently swamping the ER's and ICU's in Italy and soon in other places.