‘I’ve just given the virus the keys to my house’

08.15 am, Tuesday 1 September 2020 – This was the point in time when I handed over the keys.

We live in France. Today is ‘la rentrée’, the first day of the new school year. Mum is at this moment on her way to deliver child to her primary school. We finally decided to do so purely to re-establish her social and educational welfare, not in response to the official order of the French national education authority.

Me? Covid19 gave me the short straw. I am at ‘high risk’ (old age + Type2 diabetes + high blood pressure). It generates the most family discussion, the most fear and the most anxiety about the most dreaded of consequences, death. I have an 8% chance of dying from a raging Covid19 infection.

So from the beginning, it was agreed that I stay in hiding, that we operated the strictest personal and family hygiene rules (made even more stringent in response to the population going crazy with the unlocking of the lockdowns) and that we looked after our physical and mental wellbeing as best as possible.

It has all worked pretty well so far. Our approach meant that, never mind the mortality rate, I had a very low probability of catching the virus in the first place. No more, I have just lost control of my own destiny! Now, the virus is free to hitch a lift home from school in the nose of my child – a potential hazard that repeats itself with every day of attendance. Naturally, as well as carrying on the existing protection rules, we have agreed some new family rules to try and mitigate the new risk:

• our wills: in place already
• the home environment: we maintain the maximum home ventilation; we keep all the windows open as long as possible each day and night (this is contentious!; my partner is Croatian – she is culturally programmed to believe that strong drafts are bad for you and the source of chest problems)
• keeping fit: we have a daily preventative programme of: intensive home chest physiotherapy; static whole body exercises; plus an assortment of presumed immune system pick-me-ups (at least they give a great psychological boost if nothing else!); and, we are organising our flu jabs
• more staying in hiding: only mum does the school drop offs and pick ups
• facemasks: we have the latest ‘easy to use and maintain’ facemasks(www.breathehappy.com) and happy to recommend them based purely upon our personal experience
• and finally C³ = Child Covid Cleansing: we sanitise the child’s hands on leaving the school gates; she takes off her clothes when she gets home and she has a shower. The clothes are laundered. Honestly? It is going to be a real struggle to fully implement the daily repetitive protection rules; but that is all that is within our control and we will make a determined effort. All we can do with the school is cross our fingers, hope for the best, and plan for the worst – we have absolutely no idea of the protective quality of the school antivirus  procedures – like every other parent, we just have to wait until experience declares a success or failure in due course.

By John Saunders

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/considerations-for-school-related-public-health-measures-in-the-context-of-covid-19

World Health Communication Associates (WHCA) & INSPIRIT Creatives UG NGO,
MediaWise and MediaFocusUK

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