We gave Covid 19 the keys to our house 45 days ago, how are things going?

It is 08.00 am on Friday 16 October 2020, the forty-fifth day of back to school.  

The cheery thing to report

There are no new cheery things to report this week. Still no school Covid problems and family are still all well, apart from the usual coughs and colds. Mum and dad hope they have not reached the bottom of this particular happy barrel. That would not be cheery at all – we need hope to be real and tangible.

The not-so-cheery thing to report

Oh dear, oh dear and oh dear!   (****)!  It’s gone from bad to dreadful!

• Globally: The WHO dashboard makes for more and more dismal reading; a total of 42,055,863 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic, with 1,141,567deaths

From 1^st January to 12 October 2020 there have been a total of 2,495,363 confirmed cases, of which 180,131 were reported in the latest week; there were 36,725 deaths in the same week.

• In France: Up to the 12 October, the French WHO reported figures were: a running total of 968,729 confirmed cases, and 33,928 deaths; the previous seven days saw a rise of 36,112 new confirmed cases and 688 deaths.
• Not surprisingly, the run up to a state of emergency. President Macron has announced a curfew, starting tomorrow Saturday 17 October, between the hours of 9pm and 6am for the worst-affected hotspots: Ile-de-France, plus eight metropolitan areas – including Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Aix-Marseille, Saint Etienne and Toulouse. The curfews will last a minimum of four weeks. During the curfew hours, people will not be allowed to go to restaurants or visit friends – but there will be no restrictions on public transport or on people travelling within regions.

SO, NO CHANGE FOR US: just continue the intensive daily regime of: rigorous personal and environmental anti-Covid protection; fresh air and exercise; ventilating the home; avoiding all non-essential human to human contact; no dining out; and, minimising the frequency of essential food shopping, using only those shops that meet our Covid safety standards.

AND, WILL THE CURFEWS BRING COVID 19 UNDER CONTROL?

In mum and dad’s humble view:

• No, it is another example of indecision and fudging. Everybody will rush out in the evening to complete their social dining by 9pm; overnight, most people will be in their beds, hopefully asleep
• And, if the experience earlier this year of the crazy celebratory behaviour following the cancellation of the first national lockdown is anything to go by, the same will happen again

THE CONCLUSION: Covid 19 will only be brought under control when the majority of people are prepared to continue to maintain their personal and environmental anti-Covid 19 behaviour until the rate of new cases drops to sustained insignificant levels.

 And meanwhile

• The daily anti-Covid behaviour programme:

Mum and dad know they have to do the programme, but it still takes too much time out of the day, in particular, too much of ‘ME ALONE’ time and ‘MUM AND DAD TOGETHER’ time. We know ‘Streamline, and Streamline, and Streamline is a must, but the relieving solutions remain very elusive. Impatience with lack of progress is now rearing its ugly head and making life worse.

• Optimising our general immunity readiness:

 The new family mantra for pepping up our immunity, the final piece of the immunity jigsaw, is obviously ‘Sleep is your superpower’  

Are mum and dad and child sleeping any better?

Not yet is the short answer. We all have Covid related stress. It is unrelenting and very difficult to ignore. Child is completely Covid savvy, feeding a steady stream of questions and comments (she is really quick to spot and complain about people not behaving properly, even Presidents), and waking up too early nowadays, ready for the day, but lacking the energy to see it through to night-time. For mum and dad, they have for many years accepted the apparent inevitability of chronic sleep deprivation, due to the usual, vicious combination of reasons –  job, family, ‘modern living habits’, coffee, more coffee, burning the midnight oil, etc, etc. The progress so far to eradicate this history?:

• Mum is getting to know the various meditation techniques and testing them most nights. While pleased to report positively about them she accepts there is a long learning curve, no shortcuts to success here so far
  • Dad has decided to stop the Coffee and Alcohol poisons. Mum readily agreed with the Alcohol proposal (except for champagne on birthdays and special celebrations) but has refused the Coffee withdrawal, sticking to one to two coffees per day, taken before lunch. Addictions really are two edged – lovely to enjoy, but with punishing consequences.
  • So, abolishing Coffee has been rejected! What nasty information about Coffee could I use to persuade her otherwise? 
  • ‘You need to think again’ – the caffeine in Coffee is a psychoactive stimulant – IT WAKES YOU UP; IT STAYS IN YOUR BODY FOR A LONG TIME (50% is still circulating five to six hours later!); IT REDUCES THE QUALITY OF YOUR SLEEP, IT ACTUALLY DECREASES RESTORATIVE DEEP SLEEP. You could find yourself reaching for two cups of coffee at breakfast just to get you up and running!………  Hmm – not sure that’s enough to do the trick, feels as if it needs more work!   Dad is now exploring further, e.g.:

https://www.ikigaiglobal.com/articles/understanding-caffeine/

Finally, after 45 days of exposure to school, what about Mum and Dad – are they coping?:

Yes, they are coping reasonably but feel they should things better and more efficiently.

They recognise a serious flaw in their use of available time. The lack of time for ‘self’ and ‘couple’ is taking its toll, building up the frustration level and lowering the mood levels. Two tired, stressed-out brains continue to examine the problem and search for the solution – it must be there somewhere, staring them in their faces.  It just must be. Just keep looking. It’ll show up eventually, won’t it? It can’t hide for ever, or can it. Who knows? Oh no! It’s a Rumsfeld – we don’t know what we don’t know.

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.