It is 08.00 am on Friday 16 April 2021, two hundred and twenty-seven days from the start of the 2020 – 2021 school year.
The school madness continues!
The French primary schools will be open again shortly. We have all just experienced the pathetic gesture of the schools being closed for one week (with a pretend list of ‘home based school work’ for the kids to do that week) followed by the official two-week spring holiday break. The French ‘men-in-charge’ remain determined to keep schools open. All we can do is shudder and shake our heads at the continuing human cost as the on-going third wave of the pandemic ravages the citizens across France.
SARS-CoV2, more than one year on
It was in early 2020 when SARS-CoV2 first raised its ugly head simultaneously across many different countries. This gave us our first real fright, followed quickly by our second, really ugly fright (one that is still with us all today) when the ‘men-in-charge’ ignored expert public health advice and made dreadful decisions based upon money, not on health protection.
Waking up to the nightmare of being at permanent risk of catching SARS-CoV2
We have been working tirelessly as a family, including Child, over the past year to keep ourselves safe from the virus. All other sensible people and families everywhere have been doing exactly the same. Over the past same year, we have all been listening to the daily comments, developments and updates on the virus and the vaccine story. We all naturally assumed, based upon the flood of communications, that a time would come in the not-too-distant future when we could all get back to normal. We would all relax, hold a wake to shut down our anti-virus procedures followed by a celebration to open up our normal family lives, social interactions and recreational enjoyments.
We thought, or were led to believe, that it was just a matter of time, of being patient, of keeping our heads below the virus parapet, and looking out for the final happy announcement that the SARS-CoV2 was truly, definitely and finally declared dead and buried for good.
Fat chance now!!!! Waking up to the nightmare of being at permanent risk of catching SARS-CoV2, inevitably we have now conducted our personal post-mortems to try to understand why we are where we are now, and why things have gone so terribly wrong? Our heads are filled with the catastrophic results of a year of crass incompetent mismanagement of the virus and of the protection of populations at risk. Also, absolutely crass, nobody really stopped the planes flying. The virus has had, and still has, free flights round the world.
Whole populations were given really poor and / or confusing advice about what they, and they alone, have to do in order to keep safe; many thousands of citizens everywhere, exposed / unprotected, have died deaths that were totally avoidable; many thousands have escaped death only to suffer a miserable existence from ‘Long Covid’; and last but not least, many thousands of virus deniers have simply added tons of fuel to the virus bonfire. The bonfire has reached the point when:
Our conclusions: 1. What the future holds is anybody’s guess! 2. Time to work on our guestimate!
By John Saunders
World Health Communication Associates (WHCA) & INSPIRIT Creatives UG NGO,
MediaWise and MediaFocusUK
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.