Pressing the RESET button on all we used to know, on all we used to do, on all we used to be.
It’s like God or some unknown entity, be it Terrestrial or not, has this button and decides to reset humankind again after 100 years since the Spanish Flu.
Here in my own “bubble” I spent today working and looking out the window. There were more cars, more bikes, more people running or walking, it seemed like “back to normal within not quite normal” and I thought that the restrictions should be tougher and should be really enforced. Why should you be allowed to drive kilometres away from your home just to do you jogging routine in a nicer park or why should you go across town to walk your dog? What’s wrong with exercising in your immediate neighbourhood? Actually, in New Zealand most properties should be large enough for a stroll, as most have outdoor areas.
My wife went to her work and back. She saw no police car, but plenty of vehicles out and about. I know it was only the second day of our national quarantine, but we either do this or we don’t, there is no grey area. I would expect police with loudspeakers to be present and to enforce this lock-down a bit harder.
I detect in the official media the insinuation of the idea that the lock-down might take longer. I also detect that there is virtually no free voice to challenge some of the actions (or the inaction) of the Government.
People here still don’t get it!
More, many more cases in New Zealand today, a total of 368, with 85 new and one in intensive care for the first time. Yet people still don’t get it. We (some, too many) have this mentality:
- It’s just a flu
- It won’t affect me because I’m young and strong
- It’s not here yet
- It will be over in a couple of weeks.
This mentality will kill many and some of the dead will be close to us, some might be us. It’s like standing casually on the railway waiting for the freight train to run you over and saying “there’s not such a thing like e freight train”. Well, it actually is and it goes quite fast through Italy, Spain, the US and other places right now.
Of course, our country is isolated. That’s the general feeling – isolation will protect us. But I am afraid it won’t, because we used to be a hub for tourism, tenths of thousands of Kiwis returned form overseas in the past two months (largely unchecked), not to mention the international visitors and people on student or work visas, of which about 100,000 are understood to be trapped here (for their good, maybe). I give you a simple calculation:
- About 80,000 people came to NZ after the outbreak in China, but during the outbreaks in Iran and Europe, plus North America and Australia.
- No clear restrictions were in place, though quarantine had been imposed for the first arrivals from Wuhan, China.
- Assuming that only 1% of the returnees in February and March were infected, which could be an underestimation, we might have 800 vectors roaming around NZ for a month or so.
- If a contagion rate of only 1 to 1 (much lower than the actual spread of the Covid-19) occurred, we are facing at least 1600 loose cases, new vectors in the community. The cat has been out of the bag for too long and there might be many kittens in your neighbourhood already.
Apart from this, we are starting a fashion enterprise at home. My wife makes face masks and I market them. They won’t be cheap, as it takes about one hour to make one and they won’t offer much protection, maybe just psychological.
I’d rather see that RESET button be pushed again, so I can wake up and forget this nightmare altogether before the H A R D part hits us like a tonne of bricks. It could be just a matter of days.
