We gave Covid 19 the keys to our house 38 days ago, how are things going?

It is 08.00 am on Friday 9 October 2020, the thirty-eighth   day of back to school.  

The cheery thing to report

Well done, school – no Covid problems to report so far; AND:

Well done, Child! Only 38 days into the new school year, she has blossomed like a desert flower receiving its first drop of water in a very long time! The months of social deprivation from her peers has been assigned to the past and her educational progress is very satisfying, both to Child and to mum and dad. The exhausting, if not terrifying months of home schooling, have paid off. Taking on the additional Covid risks has already reaped the dividends much more than we could have ever wished for.

So, a silent pat on the back for everybody. Silent, because of Covid hears us boasting in any way, the virus will surely make us pay for it in some direct way or other.

The not-so-cheery thing to report

• The weekly WHO dashboard makes for more and more dismal reading – now heading for over one million deaths globally.
• Since January 2020 till now, France has reported 876,342 cases, and 33,325 deaths. The country has had a dreadful September. It is now reporting a daily average of 30,000 new Covid 19 cases, more than enough for the whole population to take note and act firmly to protect themselves and others – so, why are they not doing exactly that?

Is human behaviour really that fickle that it can blithely ignore the “bleedin’ obvious”, the risks and the potential impact upon them of the biggest ever pandemic in their life times? Very worrying – yet another risk to assess and add to our melting pot of threats?

So, it’s an easy decision for us: Continue our daily protection regime, continue to work on more improvements

We have one continuing immediate problem

Child’s birthday is 43 days away, but she is already into her daily countdown! We have not come up with a safe social solution. We are certainly not prepared have the usual birthday party at home, under any circumstances. And anything outside, in near winter conditions, would be totally depressing for everybody concerned. So, our hearts say ‘take a chance, we can’t disappoint her’ while our heads say ‘No way, Jose, better disappointed than any of us getting Covid 19’.

So, we are doing a lot of lateral thinking on this one, but no eureka moment yet.

 And meanwhile

• Our daily anti-Covid behaviour programme:

Our programme, as laid out in Issue 4, remains mum and dad’s current blueprint. Nothing has been added or removed this week. Time to take a breather, stand back, feel good about what has been achieved so far and consolidate where possible. The order of things has been tweaked a little to make it all a bit less taxing and time consuming. Mum and dad have become very intolerant of time wasting – unnecessary preparation, clumsy routines, clashes with other non-Covid family business; etc. Things can get a bit fractious for no good reason, a sign of the pressures to deliver all the anti-Covid objectives and to make the best use of the time that has been freed up to optimise the personal and family productivity schedules.

• Optimising our general immunity readiness:

This is a core objective, to make sure that both our bodily and mental defences are as ready as they can be to keep Covid permanently at bay or repel an invasion.

There is constant investigation, zigzagging into all corners of the internet; it is a strangely entertaining experience, certainly miles better than TV, lifting the virtual stones, looking underneath to see what is hidden and boring and to find the occasional gem to then investigate of its real or pretend.  Surprise, surprise then, when dad, looking for a bit of downtime relaxation from the hunt, stumbled upon the gem of all gems, a Ted talk ‘Sleep is your superpower’ by a clever chap called Matt Walker.

Seventeen minutes later, dad was in shock! Walker gives several key messages, including:

1. A regular eight hours of sleep each night is a non-negotiable ‘mission-critical’ life support system, essential for both brain and bodily functions to operate normally
2. Sleep deprivation causes ‘alarmingly bad things’ to happen to both your brain and body, including damaging your:

• ‘NATURAL KILLER CELLS’, an essential element of your immune response system
  • Normal day-to-day genetic code activity, stimulating some genes, switching off others
  • Education, learning and memory capabilities
  • Male and female reproductive systems
  • and, if that’s not enough, here is the big sting in the tail, it reduces your life span

•  His conclusions and recommendations:
  • ‘Sleep is your life-support system and Mother Nature’s best effort yet at immortality’
  • There is a global, silent sleep loss epidemic, fast becoming one of the greatest public health challenges
  • It is time for us all to reclaim our right for a full nights’ sleep for the sake of our health, well-being, and a normal life span  

So, the message to mum and dad: here we are, propping up our immune system with daily exercise and walking, Vitamin D, cod liver oil, etc., but we didn’t know that the first item on the list has to regular sleep, minimum eight hours per night;  back to the drawing board

AND, the message to all our fellow citizens of the world: ‘if you think sleep is a waste of time, watch this TED video and learn some important, and life-enhancing information. You will be surprised at how important sleep is for good health and a good, long life.’

 Finally, after 38 days of exposure to school, what about Mum and Dad – are they coping?:

Stepping back, reviewing what we do well, what we have not been doing well and consolidating whatever can be consolidated has been good for mum and dad. Reassurance is uplifting. Making something or some action more efficient is uplifting. Our brains take succour from the least little change for the better. Pathetic, isn’t it! Now, of course, we have identified a new, gigantic stress inducing problem, mum and dad’s chronic sleep deprivation, one of the modern scourges of today’s life and family habits.  The current immunity enhancing programme – the mechanical taking of products that are deemed as being ‘good’ for your immunity, continues – but we have been convinced, courtesy of TED, that we must now urgently consider how to comply with nature’s fundamental superpower, sleep.

By John Saunders

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

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