We gave Covid 19 the keys to our house 213 days ago, how are things going?

It is 08.00 am on Friday 2 April 2021, two hundred and thirteen days from the start of the 2020 – 2021 school year.

The big news this week!

At last, believe it or not, President Macron has finally woken up from his long dream about utopia to find out about what everyone else has known about for weeks, namely – the country he is supposedly in charge of is actually up shit creek without a paddle from the SARS-CoV2 point of view. The new cases continue to rise, the ITU beds are practically full and the vaccination programme is painfully slow – in other words, a perfect storm (great planning, eh!).

So, he has now authorised a third national lockdown, plus all schools closed from Easter Monday for the week (then we’re into the two week spring holidays anyway), plus no travel outside a 10 kms radius from your residence, (except on authorised business), plus all non-essential shops closed (if you need a good laugh in these tiresome times, hunt down the French definition of a non-essential shop!) plus a national curfew with shutdown at 7 pm and start up at 6 am (still not policed at all!).

The story is going around that the President just couldn’t stand the thought of being responsible for calling a third lockdown down upon everyone’s head. Having only one year to go to the next Presidential election, he didn’t want that label to make him look bad / incompetent / a weakling / or something similar. Well, now he just looks stupid. And you will also notice, schools are no longer being protected as if there are untouchable – it looks as if school and class closures are set to become the norm for colleges and lycées, with primary schools still not fully declared one way or another – watch this space.

Taking stock, cont.

Last week, noting the passing of more than 200 days since the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, we started to take stock of the results to date of our family campaign against the SARS-CoV2 to stop it creeping silently into our house during those 200 days, particularly via our Child attending school, an explicit risk visited upon all kids in France without permission by the ‘men-in-charge’. So far, we have highlighted the two really important good news elements of our survival:

This blog as a source of ‘pain’ relief, the really unexpected but very welcome uplifting and cathartic benefit of doing our blog; (and thoroughly recommended to all as a simple, free remedy); and we have managed to avoid SARS-CoV2 so far. We regularly pose the question ‘why’ quietly to ourselves – why have things gone well so far, when we really expected to fail miserably at keeping the virus at bay. The key message – stick obsessively to the anti-Covid script, NO EXCEPTIONS, NO DEVIATIONS.

Now to the bad news elements of our stock take. After more than a year of fighting, and still with no let up in sight, the optimist in us would phrase it as ‘when will we return to having normal lives again?’, while the pessimist in us would say ‘will we ever return to having normal lives again?’ Three key feeder questions help inform the answers:

1. How long can we rely on our new immunity from the vaccination?
2. How long is the blanket embargo on life and family planning going to continue?
3. And the new variants – are they about to survive and prosper untouched by vaccination?

These are truly fearsome demons for all of us to wrestle with. Are we still able to come out on top? Who is on top, us or Covid? Which way is up? Why is time going so fast? Who has the answers?

By John Saunders

---

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

Strengthening connections
while keeping distance

News You Can Use

We are all vulnerable to this virus. This is a unique time for our communities all over the world as we work to combat this massive global threat. This blog aims to collect and share your stories and reflections that can help others to cope, thrive and build resilience…

Our communities are at different stages of response in different parts of the world. We can learn a lot from each other. Building on World Health Organization and other evidence-based guidance, this blog will gather and disseminate stories that inform, inspire and hopefully strengthen social connectiveness while we all practice physical distancing.

We invite you to contribute. At present we are looking for stories in the following areas:

May the force be with all of us.

Sabrina, Mike, Steve, Tuuli and Franklin for the Connecting Communities team

BLOG: https://www.inspiritcreatives.com/coronavirus-connecting-communities
Email: cccov19@gmail.com
See: https://www.whcaonline.org | https://www.inspiritcreatives.com/humanity
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12385075/ | Twitter: @connecting_comm
News: https://cccovid19.org/corona_virus/

Disclaimer – We try to include stories that respect World Health Organisation COVID19 guidance. Links take you to full published stories. Our Connecting Communities team screens and selects stories but can not guarantee accuracy of reporting and mentions of any products does not indicate endorsement.

While we grieve for the tremendous loss of lives in so many countries, we can see and feel that the need to connect communities and share learning grows everyday. Please attach your comments and stories to this blog or send them to cccov19@gmail.com or attach them to this blog. We welcome stories in all languages and from all countries. Here are some first examples of stories and links. Send us yours and make this blog useful.