Daily life under lock-down in Lebanon

I though that the best way to convey the feel of the country is by publishing threads of emails and messages that I asked some Lebanese friends to share with me some of their correspondence.

Yesterday Tripoli was witnessing an unreal scene of violence. 

On the night of April 27, hundreds of protesters, in defiance of the Covid-19 lockdown, gathered in Tripoli’s Nour Square to protest the rapidly deteriorating standards of living during Lebanon’s economic crisis. Dozens of protesters torched and otherwise damaged banks, set an army vehicle on fire, and threw stones and fireworks at the soldiers. The soldiers fired live ammunition, rubber bullets, and teargas at protesters.

Received today an email that touched my soul. Am sharing it here. 
28 April 2020

I do not know if I can take on more pressure and tension. I have been living under uncertainty and fear since October 2019 when Lebanon protests started, and then came the corona mess, and now the country is exploding in anger. Irrational anger against the banks. Seems that people are targeting what they see in front of them. The problem is that now the President has succeeded in drawing the army into the conflict putting it to face the anger of the people. My levels of stress is escalating. I try to keep it together, but how can one add the stress of corona to the stress to looking at an uncertain future, losing everything, and no hope for improvement. I am reaching desperation.... 

23 April 2020

The lock-down is getting to everybody!
Yesterday, finished work at 7 pm was late due to various interruptions on Skype, barely poured by drink when my brother Zoomed... He got the sister and one of the cousins - by the time we finished (2 sessions) I was out.
This morning, I was planning to start on work - this got interrupted by "Microsoft Teams meeting...", this lead me to deal with several monkey issues.. This is becoming endless... PUFFFfffffffff....
Can't people go and find something else to do with their time????
Now will finish other mundane issues to clear me mind to focus on the task.
Yalla Kisses and sorry for venting...
Will try to catch you this evening for sure... 

Answer:  Try to do like me, mute Skype and WhatsApp. I just keep hangouts on as only used by my close friends and family, but then they rarely call :)

Replied:  You are right, too much noise coming through all those applications...
Oh, not to mention the phones (mobile & landline)... I miss our old number pre area code era... LOL it rarely worked. Love it.
Yalla back to work (akeed after doing the laundry...)

22 April 2020

I finally lost hope in Lebanon. The comments and declarations I am hearing from the ''thawra'' or Lebanon Protest, whoever they are and if they really represent all the people who took to the street, are childish and along the same lines as Lebanese arrogance ''I am right, I want to talk, I do not want to hear or analyse''.
Also the continuous nagging and protesting, even the new measures that will solve the purchase power of citizens is being criticized, all they want is a dolarised economy. ''We want everything and we do not care if it is possible or not!''
Most of what I hear are just cliches and statements that they consider as Bible or Koran, even if they have no base in reality and do not pass checks and balance.
Ahhh, I should stop hearing the Lebanese!
No hope for this country! We are a stupid, arrogant, ignorant, narcissist bunch of people!
Sorry 😊 I need to vent! 

20 April 2020

Seems that we are doomed to live our lives in this region in vagueness without ever having any clarity... I am not optimistic. The choice you took to live in civilized lands was the correct one.
Now on a positive note, Beirut is still calm, quite, clean, with very little pollution...

Answered:  See, there is a good side, less pollution and noise pollution! 😜
My dear friend, long ago I moved to a more developed world that is closer to the Lebanon I grew up in. And was lucky to chose one of the best countries in the world of sanity. Yet, even though I saw Lebanon gradually eroding to become a country I barely recognize; I remained perched between two worlds with so many emotional and material connection to Lebanon. I quote: Beirut is a curse, you can't live in it, and you cannot live without it!

Replied:  Indeed good philosophy, we cannot contest, as it's true. I wonder when it will become totally unrecognizable. I do not dare think more and will only enjoy the calm and nice air quality. Once lock-down lifts, will loose those.  I do not think that people learned something from the lock-down, like the positive effect on the environment... Alas, habits do not change quickly...

10 April 2020

I hate myself! I order a big four cheeses pizza this evening!
I cannot forgive myself.
Mea culpa!

Answer:  But of course! What do you expect to happen???
I decided to fry an egg now!
This lockdown business in good for the food industry! Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...................... I wonder! Conspiracy!

18 April 2020

Lovely evening.
Lovely email... Sounded like you had a lovely and very enjoyable day... Add productive to that on the personal level...
From my side, also did not work today. Went to he mountains and saw the in-laws (they are fine) a bit on the lonely side though. Frustrating for them to be alone for Easter. As you said, que sera sera... We have lovely warm weather, sat in the sun for 10 minutes...
Then came back, Zoomed with friends.
At 6:45 pm had to run down and walk the dog upon his request, although he has been roaming freely in the big garden and terraces around the village house. Amazing these little walking poop production factories...
There was a bit of movement today in Beirut and along the road to mountains. Also some movement up there - maybe prior to Easter Sunday! When I was walking now, just before the curfew at 7 - amazing how the roads emptied up so sudden... The city is so silent and tranquil - love it... Only sound audible now is coming from the church down the street... A mix of tolling bells and prayer over the loud speakers! At least it is not very invasive or intrusive... LOL...

16 April 2020

So sad for Lebanon ... and so angry at the media stupidly uttering about success in facing Covid-19! Just read the the city of Vienna (1.5 million inhabitants, just like Beirut) is providing 5,000 laptops to young pupils who currently have to follow classes from home but might not have suitable devices. All they did in Beirut was to 'as they say' increase band width!

Answer:  What facing of Covid? We stuck our heads in the sand - stayed at home in lock-down! Meanwhile, a good chunk of people situation worsening by the day.. We only see what suits us; the ''Switzerland of the Orient'' image! 

13 April 2020

Good morning...
We forget and do not learn....
Love the German reopening plan you posted ...
I wonder what will happen on this side and how they will do it!?
Now I wonder how we will adapt when we go back to "normal work" - need to consult my therapist.... Will keep you posited.

12 April 2020

I have to confess my sins of the day;
I took a very politically incorrect ride today, and did all the areas that start with "B" just like "Beirut".  In this run, I exchanged some Bollars in Barbir at 2,700/1, also bought 1Bg of fancy B(s)udanes Beanuts....
Oh - I might add that I might be adding some Bgs... 

31 March 2020

God, how many stupidity I hear by so called experts! They mix dictatorship vs capitalism, then talk about the death of globalization as if coronavirus the end of globalization while in fact it is the proof that no country can isolate itself. Then they boast that Lebanon is doing better than Europe taking Italy as an example as to death rate neglecting Germany, Austria and many others. Also neglecting that in Lebanon 5000 test done vs about 60,000 in Austria which would translate in 30,000 test if we calculate according to population. This not mentioning the fact that in Europe, nobody will die of hunger because he is not working! They forget the human factor and economic measures when boasting about how Lebanon handling of coronavirus!

Answer:  You are making a big mistake!
The problem, is that you are "listening" to these so called experts!
End of argument and I rest my case... 

Another reply on reply:  *Those so called experts.... (correction of previous email grammatical error).  Oh and we are immune to everything -- seems that you forgot this important fact!!! Shame  on you... 

Trump is a populist, but WHO is not free of blame

Trump is a populist who masters the art of redirecting blame.
Yet, away from the trend of demonizing everything Trump says or does, we need to take a look at the WHO and China.

From what I read and observed in various countries, the WHO is not beyond blame.

Timeline of Covid-19 spread from China to the world
The Guardian-the inside story of the WHO's response to coronavirus

By end December the WHO received indications from China of several cases of unusual pneumonia in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people. Taiwan also alerted WHO.
On January 7, officials announced they had identified a new virus and quickly after that indications of spread outside China and death related figures were confirmed.
It was quite shocking that on 14 January, WHO put out a tweet citing preliminary Chinese studies finding “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission”. It was issued on the same day the WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19, gave a press briefing in Geneva warning of precisely the opposite; the potential for rapid spread.

On 22 January, the WHO emergency committee convened to make a pivotal decision on whether to advise the organisation to send a formal red alert for the world.
It did not happen as they were split, so they delayed a week in the hope new data might create a consensus. China argued against declaring an emergency but could not have carried the argument alone. An international health emergency was declared a week later, on 30 January.

Tedros, Director-General of WHO tirelessly praised China and Xi leadership, hailing Beijing’s transparency despite the critical early weeks when the authorities tried to cover up the extent of the problem in Wuhan.

Here comes my main blame for WHO.
As usual such diplomatic flattery was the price of ensuring Chinese cooperation with information and WHO site visits. Tedros also complimented Trump in a March 23 tweet, claiming he was doing “a great job in the fight against Covid-19”.

WHO primary care should be saving life and not exercising undue diplomacy, when diplomacy here means lack of transparency in relaying medical information about a pandemic to the world. In such existential crisis public relation should not take center stage.

WHO has been continuously using the numbers issued by countries as confirmed data without any reflection or analysis.
It disregarded the mass graves in Iran, accepted that Syria did not register any cases, agreed to the small numbers of infection in Africa, and much more.
They do not point that these numbers are flawed because testing is not available or implemented or that some governments are repressing the broadcasting of information.
They do not take into account or point out that in some countries old people just die at home without being included in death rates.

People consider WHO as an authority and accept the numbers issued as Bible or Koran. The result is that in many countries and Lebanon is a good example, the line is ''we are doing better than Europe and the US''. It is nice to believe we are doing better than countries considered as 'more advanced'.
In reality the numbers and rates are flawed as democratic countries respect access to information, and countries such as Germany and Austria have been testing to a very high percentage of the population.

The problem in accepting WHO numbers without analysis, gives the citizens of countries that do not test or censure results, a false sense of safety which could lead to high unreported death rates and a possibility of increasing the life of the pandemic.

What will happen when the crisis is supposedly contained in Europe and the US while the rest of the world has no proper evaluation of infection rates?
New walls and self isolation of whole countries or region?

It is the role of the WHO to take preventive measures at all levels, and it is not happening.

13 of April, a memory or a never ending saga for Lebanon?

Clear heavens, a brisk breeze, and happiness are my recollections of April 13 1975. We were a carefree group of university students picnicking in the northern mountains of Lebanon. Lebanese, Palestinians, Americans, Maronite, Shiites, and Sunnites basking in the sun, side by side with no worries or afterthoughts. Then we heard the news, and the world turned upside down and the saga seems never ending.

In 2005, after the 14th of March, I thought it was a new beginning and wrote the article Long-absent hope returns to Lebanon. The revolution failed.
In 2019, the 17 of October movement brought new hope. The movement seems to have failed again.

Today, it is all about Lebanon defaulting on it's debt and capital controls. A Cabinet of so called experts that seems to lead from behind, the rise of the culture of corruption, and the fall of the political class.
It is the ultimate erosion of the essence of Lebanon, once called the Switzerland or Paris of the Orient.
It looks like a downward trend towards the end of  free economy and with it Freedom and Democracy.
Add to it  Covid-19 and the saga continues, and hope seems far far away.

Copyright (c) 2005 The Daily Star

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Long-absent hope returns to Lebanon

By Khatoun Haidar Special to The Daily Star

April 13, 1975, is a date that represents, for most of us Lebanese who are above 45 years of age, a frontier separating the often idealized Lebanon of before the war, and the insufferable reality of after April 13. For the youth of Lebanon, April 13 is just a controversial historical date. For them there is no dividing line; they grew up in a Lebanon ravaged by war, still suffering the sequels of occupation and a deep sectarian partition. A country where ambition is curbed and hope scarce This would have been a perfect introductory paragraph to a piece commemorating April 13, if I was asked to write it before February 14. Today I cannot ignore the change, the atmosphere of revival, and the fact that more than half of the Lebanese population, waving the flag, took to the streets in two peaceful demonstrations. I cannot ignore the loud voice of the silent majority, and the strong participation of women and the youth. I cannot disregard the sight of two women standing side by side at Hariri's last resting place, one reading the Muslim prayer and the other performing the sign of the cross. I cannot neglect the reaction of defiance and the stress on national unity that followed four criminal explosions that targeted Christian areas. One has often dreamed of renewal, but never dared to imagine one. Today it is possible, the Lebanese people just need to reach for it, and then maybe April 13, 2005 will be a new frontier, that of the rebirth of Lebanon. I am sure that many dismiss these signs as emotional reactions, and insist that the situation is much more complex than the popular mood. This is true in some way, yet it is not pure naivete to observe the manifestations of discontent and to measure the pulse of the population. Regimes that dismiss the well-being of their population by imposing an iron-handed approach to governing do so at their own risk. In fact, the mood of the Lebanese before and after the Hariri assassination takes root in the political developments that followed the Taif Agreement. The Lebanese civil war that started on April 13, 1975 was officially ended on October 22, 1989, by the Arab League, sponsoring the Taif Agreement. By then, the Lebanese were weary and tired from a series of armed conflicts that at first took root in deep internal divisions but then became regional in nature. The end of the armed conflict did not bring the civil war to a real conclusion. There was no national reconciliation effort on the popular level, and Israel maintained its occupation of South Lebanon, which made the Syrian presence in Lebanon a de facto reality that nobody could contest without seeming to side with the enemy. Given this reality it would have been naive to expect the emergence of an independent democratic Lebanon. In theory, Taif restored to Lebanon its Constitution, that guarantees freedoms and democracy. But under the pretext of national security necessities the country was ruled for the last 15 years by a false, imposed national consensus that destroyed accountability, the prime basis of democracy. The choices of ministers became a reflection of sectarian power centers and foreign intervention, resulting at all political junctions in deadlock. The parliamentary institution lost its meaning when deputies started falling in line when it came to the ministerial vote of confidence or presidential elections, whatever their previously declared positions. People felt powerless and many gave up on the electoral system. Then in the year 2000, the South was liberated from Israeli occupation, and there was hope in the air, but soon it became clear that the status quo was here to stay, and that the country was sinking deeper under Syrian control. The signs of an organized effort to erode the few remaining liberties became more pronounced. This demise of democracy was exacerbated by a deep feeling of isolation as the international community showed a total lack of concern. The sense of hopelessness became stronger and young people had only one dream: leave the country. Buried under this hopelessness was anger. The anger exploded when Hariri was assassinated. People took peacefully to the streets, the prime minister resigned, and the international community started paying attention. Out of it came a feeling of empowerment and hope. For me this hope is embodied in the commune-like freedom tents in the middle of Beirut. There you find hundreds of youth of all religious sects that have been living there since the Hariri assassination. They organize daily activities under strict rules of behavior and you often find students from opposing parties communicating, building a basis for national reconciliation. School children visit and try to understand. The hope is that this generation, whatever happens, will never forget this experience.

Is Austria winning the war against coronavirus?

After the Austrian government took increasingly drastic measures in March to contain the coronavirus, the country successfully flattened the curve in April, and gradually reopened shops, schools and restaurants again in May. Life in Vienna got back to something like normality with summer arriving in June.

Now, with cases rising again in Austria – but being tested, tracked and traced – society is trying to find a new balance between containing the virus and living daily life.
With this final post, I close this blog.
Austria won the battle, will it win the war, remains to be seen.

Clearly face masks should have remained mandatory

July 8, 2020:

“This is not the path we envisioned to tread,” said Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) when announcing renewed official travel warnings for several countries in Southeastern and Eastern Europe today.
After an uptick in new cases in Upper Austria and other regions, the number of new coronavirus infections per 100,000 inhabitants now stands at 1.1 at the national level. A total of 1,086 people in Austria have an infective coronavirus infection.
Schallenberg pointed out that “more and more recent cases can be traced” to people traveling back and forth between countries, hence he issued an “urgent appeal” not travel there at the moment.

June 30, 2020:

More than 80 new coronavirus cases were registered in Austria in the last 24 hours, the highest number in several weeks.
With active coronavirus cases in Vienna stable around 272 in the last weeks, case numbers in other regions have recently been on the rise again. Concretely, the federal states of Upper Austria (124), Lower Austria (101), Styria (32) and Salzburg (32) have seen an uptick of cases.

June 20

The London-based Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) judged the public policy response of mostly advanced OECD countries to the pandemic in a new index.  Austria shares the 2nd place on the index with Germany and behind just New Zealand, among a number of mostly rich countries that were analyzed.

The policy responses of the UK, Italy, Spain and Belgium were judged as “poor,” landing the countries at the bottom of the list.

One wonders if it is smart to ease travel restrictions when New Zealand who celebrated being Covid-19 free a week ago registered today 2 new cases; two British ladies who managed to circumvent prevention measures and just roamed around the country undetected.

On June 15, Austrian Airlines (AUA) will resume scheduled flights on Monday. The AUA will start to fly to 20 destinations in Europe, flights to long-distance destinations will resume on July 1.

By 6 June Austria seems to have contained the virus. Things are reopening and they are getting back to something like normal life.
Yet people are warned that when you let down your guard there could be a resurgence of infections. 
Austrians cannot be complacent. Relaxing social distancing measures too quickly and permitting “superspreader” events are the leading causes for multiple waves. 
The good news is that they can substantially reduce the magnitude of a second wave or prevent it by social distancing practices, wearing face masks, hand washing, and limiting the number of superspreader events.
Mass testing for active cases and for people who have already had COVID-19 along with contact tracing, rapid identification of new clusters and immediate isolation of potentially infected people will be crucial for preventing the next wave.
If we can’t avoid the second wave, we need to prepare for it, and that means ensuring that there’s an ample supply of personal protective equipment, ventilators, medications, testing kits, and qualified healthcare workers. Austria is well prepared at this level. 

A few tips to help prevent and/or prepare for a second wave

• If you’ve been in contact with someone you know has COVID-19, or you think that you have symptoms, call the coronavirus hotline and immediately isolate yourself.
• Keep washing or sanitizing your hands, and don’t touch your face if your hands aren’t clean.
• Stock up on face masks and wear them in public and crowded places.
• Get your yearly flu shot to reduce your risk of being sick with the flu and COVID-19.
• Work from home as much as you can because there is less chance of contracting the virus when you’re home, and fewer people in public places also reduce viral spread.
• Avoid crowds and superspreader events.
• Find a new way to greet friends and family without touching them by waving, putting your hand on heart, blowing a kiss to them, air-kissing, or bowing.

June 6, 2020:

Only 17 people are currently in an intensive care unit (ICU) for the coronavirus in all of Austria. The total number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals fell to 72.

Travel between Austria, Slovenia, Czechia and Hungary is now possible without restrictions. Austria opened the borders to all neighboring countries  except Italy. For Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary the same rules as before the pandemic will apply.

Calculations by the Technical University of Vienna (TU Wien) have shown the impact of the relatively early lockdown in Austria.
On March 16, the country shut down most of its public life and citizens massively reduced social interactions (by up to 90%).
Had the lockdown occurred seven days later, up to four times more cases of coronavirus would have occurred in Austria at the end of March (40,000 instead of 10,000 in reality), leading also to up to four times more patients needed intensive care (an estimated 1,000 in ICUs instead of the 250 people in intensive care in reality).
The researchers thus underline how early actions helped the country get through the crisis without overburdening the healthcare system. They underline that contact tracing and constant testing is now crucial to keep the situation under control

June 1, 2020:
Keeping our fingers crossed!

The number of people in Austria suffering from COVID-19 continues its steep downward trend. At the beginning of April, there were 9,200 known active infections in Austria; at the beginning of May, there were 1,800 patients; now, at the beginning of June, this number fell to 378 active infections.

Update May 25, 2020:
ٍSeems that until now the ''new normal'' is working.

At Vienna’s AKH General Hospital, Europe’s first successful lung transplant for a COVID-19 patient was performed. The 45-year old patient with no pre-existing medical conditions fell ill with the coronavirus eight weeks ago. The disease damaged her lungs so much that doctors said she could not have survived without a transplant. Now, she’s recovering and “doing doing brilliantly” given the circumstances, the doctors at the AKH say.

Follow up, testing, tracing, taking measure seems the way to go.

New coronavirus infections in Vienna have in recent weeks mostly taken place in known family clusters, announced the city’s bureau of sanitation. “The origins of very few cases remain unresolved,” said the director of the bureau, Ursual Karnthaler.

Several cases of coronavirus have emerged in distribution centers of the Austrian Post in Inzersdorf und Hagenbrunn in recent weeks. The City of Vienna has thus started to preemptively test all workers and replace them temporarily with mobilized militiamen. Two soldiers also tested positive for COVID-19. All soldiers will be tested too, now.

Facing covid-19 is not only medical in nature

The Austrian government will set up a fund of €1 billion to the country’s municipalities to strengthen the regional economy after the coronavirus slump. 

Update 18 May
+0/3% increase in infection rate has been stable since mid April, the time of the first easing of lockdown. But the RO increased for the first time from 0.78 to 1.07.
Still the opening plans remain the same with the return of 700,000 students to school under very strict measures. Outside pools are open with strict measures.
I wonder what this means. For schools it might be possible, but for swimming?!
Does not make sense. I hope it is not a wrong decision.
But then no real worries as medical system and hospital are working at regular rate, so in case of an outbreak, the country can cope.

Update 15 May
Vienna municipality promotes eating out

Stage 3 opens restaurants today. Many efforts are made to promote the economy. If this efforts succeeds without starting a new wave, then Austria is an experience in handling coronavirus that needs to be studied and considered all over the world.

Update 5 May
Inspirational speech by the President of Austria

Caught my attention is that he addressed ''Dear Austrians and all people who live in Austria!''

He mentioned culture before economy ''The medicine we swallow is bitter: isolation, restriction of personal rights, widespread standstill of our cultural life and economy.''

He presented a reformist vision of the future with social and environmental justice. ''I believe in seizing the opportunity in the crisis, overcoming unemployment and making the turn towards a sustainable economy. With nature, not against it.''

Making travel easier from and to Vienna airport

From Monday passengers can have a molecular biological (polymerise chain reaction or PCR) COVID-19 test at the airport, and get the result in two to three hours, the airport said.  

The airport tests, can also be taken by passengers leaving Vienna to demonstrate their virus-free status at their destination.

"Air travel, whether business journeys or urgent trips...will thus become safer and easier," 

Working on relaunching tourism

 An initiative, proposed by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, aims to provide a way for countries, many of which are heavily dependent on tourism, to begin opening borders without the fear of letting in virus carriers. 

The proposal comes after the leaders of the seven nations took part in a videoconference on April 24 in which they discussed various strategies to deal with the virus and to gradually open the countries’ economies after weeks of tight restrictions.

The countries involved are until this date are Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Greece, Czechia, and Israel.

Update 1st of May
The number are still decreasing.
The Coronavirus in Austria & Vienna | Re-emerging From Quarantine

Update 20 April
Keeping my fingers crossed.

The number of active coronavirus cases in Austria has been dropping fast as a proportion of tested vs confirmed cases. In Vienna, there are now three times more recovered patients than active cases. Death rates per 100,000 is 3 times lower than Sweden and 5 times lower than UK. 

Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens) called a decline of this speed and magnitude “unique in Europe.”

The plan for the 'new normal' has been summarized for ease of information 

In Austria as of April 11, 2020:

• The daily number of people cured from the coronavirus in Austria has outstripped those of newly positively tested cases for several days now – that means the total number of infected people, as reflected by official testing, is in decline.
• Of a total of 13,561 positively tested cases of coronavirus in Austria:
• 6,620 people (48.82% of the total) are currently infected
• 6,604 people (48.70%) have already recovered
• 337 people (2.49%) passed away with or due to the disease
• Out of active cases, 1,036 people are currently hospitalized, 246 of which are in intensive care
• A third of the 1,058 intensive care units (ICUs) in Vienna’s hospitals is available, as of 9 April. Austrian hospitals have also accepted intensive care patients from France in recent days.

Austria is a small country so rarely mentioned when the media talks about Covid-19.
Yet it is a good example of what we can do right on more than a sector or level.

First of all, and most importantly , the health system is very good and compared to the Western world it has one of the highest rate of ICU per person and no shortage in protective gear for medical staff.

Second a plan of action was set since the beginning, self-isolation instructions until 13 April. So people knew what they had to face. In parallel, very high levels of testing and evaluation. Noting that testing done in residence, people did not have to go to hospitals.

On Monday, April 6, the government announced that the current measures have been prolonged until the end of April and unveiled the plan for the coming months.
Starting April 14, small stores (<400 square meters of size) and DIY and garden centers may reopen under certain restrictions (with only a small number of customers at any one time).
A protection for face and mouth (masks or scarfs) will also become mandatory on public transport.
Starting May 1, stores, shopping malls and hairdressers may reopen.
Starting mid-May, restaurants, cafes and hotels may reopen.
All public events will remain cancelled until the end of June.
No school until mid-May and universities will remain closed for the rest of the semester.
If infection number start to rise again, measures can also be toughened once again (Kurz called it a “Notbremse” or emergency break).
Austria’s Bundesgärten (federal gardens) will open on April 14, with controls at entrances to prevent overcrowding.
People are aurgently requested not to travel for celebrating Easter with their families in different households, to keep the infection rate down.
Further measures will be evaluated at the end of April.

Third, and since the start assistance for workers. Anybody can apply for short term unemployment guaranteeing 90% of salary  and this applied for self-employed. So people did not have to worry about their livelihood and we did not see any people breaking the self isolation because they needed to work. Also businesses did not panic. For example

Austria’s Federal Railways (ÖBB) have put 10,000 employees on Kurzarbeit (short-time work).  

The federal government announced that they will guarantee 80-100% of emergency loans for businesses for a period of up to five years.

Four, and maybe due to trusting their government and a natural cultural tendency to comply with laws and recommendations, Austrian did and are complying to the letter with self isolation regulation.

Let's hope that the slow come back to normal first step on April 14 succeeds and there is no surge in infections.

Corona virus in parody: we laugh away our distress

                                                              

Covid-19 saga is our failure, why?

In a previous blog I refused to let corona virus mess my life. 

How wrong I was!

This small virus turned the world upside down.

But why? and how? is it a killer virus stronger than Ebola? is it very dangerous, more than Ebola or SARS? 

We compare it to the Spanish flu. But, didn't our medical sciences advance tremendously over the last century?

COVID-19 is not a killer virus. 85% of people who get it do not show signs or show very mild signs, 

15% need hospitalization, 5% need ICU care, and death rate does not exceeds  1-10% of confirmed cases which means less than 1% of the overall infected people. So not much different from the flu.

So why is it causing the world to take measures such as self isolation, suspending economic life, thus generating a crisis that will take time and time to solve and might change our world forever?

Simply because we do not have yet built our immunity against it and it is a very aggressive virus whose life outside the body is long which means ease of transmission. It spread quickly.

The New England Journal of Medicine just published a study that tested how long the virus can remain stable on different kinds of surfaces within a controlled laboratory setting. They found that it was still detectable on copper for up to four hours, on cardboard for up to 24 hours, and on plastic and steel for up to 72 hours.

Meaning that it is almost impossible to prevent infection, it has to take its course until the population builds its immunity against it.

Covid-19 symptoms vary widely, and undertesting in many countries means that many people may have already had the coronavirus without having received a positive diagnosis.- The Guardian 1 April 2020

So why billions of people have found that they are now faced with unprecedented restrictions. 

In many countries across the world Police have been given licence to control behavior in a way that would normally be extreme even for an authoritarian state.

In some countries we are witnessing violence and humiliation used by police to impose coronavirus curfews, often affecting the poorest and more vulnerable.

Because, we need to flatten the curve. 

Health systems in most countries around the world, even the most rich and wealthy cannot accommodate the 15%  infected that need hospitalization and 5% that need ICU care, in addition to the regular hospital workload. 

If we look at death rates versus health care preparedness, we understand why we need to flatten the curve. Best examples are Germany and Austria in comparison with Italy and Spain and the US.

This is why we need to spread the infection rate, rather than stop the spread. And this what we are doing by self isolation and lock downs; in parallel destroying our way of life and economy.

Because we failed as governments and societies in taking proper preparation measures though SARS, Ebola, and the Swine Flu were warning signs.

For many of us, the coronavirus pandemic seemed to come out of nowhere. Institutions and people around the world have been caught completely off guard by its impact. But for years, Bill Gates has been warning about the risk of a deadly pandemic much like this one — and raising the alarm that our societies weren't prepared to handle it.
In a CBS News interview three years ago, the billionaire philanthropist talked about the potential for a worldwide health crisis and the fact that we are largely unprepared.
"The impact of a huge epidemic, like a flu epidemic, would be phenomenal because all the supply chains would break down. There'd be a lot of panic. Many of our systems would be overloaded," Gates told CBS News from the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "But being ready for epidemics of different sizes, there's a lot more we should do." CBS news: Bill Gate epidemic warning readiness

How come humanity never learns the lessons from history. 
It was not so long ago,1918, that the Spanish flu began to spread around the world. By 1920, Spanish flu is thought to have claimed the lives of up to 100 million people. 
The Guardian podcast: Lessons from the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic

In fact corona virus would not be dangerous if we were prepared. 

Compare resources governments allocate to medical research and the investment made in health systems to those directed towards military spending and consumerism, then we can understand why humanity has failed being prepared.

Let's take the US as an example:

Defense versus health care

Defense spending accounts for 15 percent of all federal spending while health care spending is 18%. Yet this is not accurate as half of discretionary spending that represents one-third of the annual federal budget is also spent on the military. So in fact we need to add 17% on military spending. 

We end up in about of 33% spending on the military versus 18% on Health care.

As to medical research, it is puny. 

Data derived from industry sources; federal, state, and local governments; academic and research institutions; hospital research centers; and grant-giving entities, found that the total amount that the United States spent on medical and health R&D in 2016 reached $171.8 billion only.