We gave Covid 19 the keys to our house 52 days ago, how are things going?

It is 08.00 am on Friday 23 October 2020, the fifty- second day of back to school.  

The cheery thing to report

Hooray! It’s school holiday time – two weeks off for half term! A blessed, temporary relief from the school related Covid 19 risks for a whole 22 continuous days and nights. Feels really good to have two weeks off – it gives mum and dad the sensation that they are undergoing a free mental health spa retreat! It also allows mum and dad to compare the two situations: [Covid 19 stress level with school v Covid 19 stress level with no school].

The first conclusion this week: School really does generate is a significant additional mental burden on the whole family.

The not-so-cheery thing to report

• More about school related Covid 19 stress: Let’s dig into this a bit more and pin down the enormity of the multiplier effect when school related Covid 19 stress is expressed globally – start with every teacher working in every school system everywhere, add in every family sending their children to all these schools, and then add in all the pupils themselves.  Every member of this huge education community has been nominated by their respective governing authorities to become a prime Covid 19 target. Teaching or learning in the frontline of the next likely hotspot in this pandemic amounts to a huge additional level of Covid 19 stress, to the obvious detriment of their collective mental health and well-being. The authorities have a lot to answer for when the day of judgment comes.

This is seriously lamentable – the worldwide education communities are all sailing in the same leaky Covid 19 school boat;  a prime argument for education to go virtual by default.

• Covid 19 is running amok all over Europe: As at 24 October, France has reported a total of 1,010,554 confirmed cases and 34,225 deaths to the WHO dashboard. In the past week, there have been 172,409 new confirmed cases and a further 1,106 deaths.

THE SECOND CONCLUSION THIS WEEK: This is fast reaching crisis point for the French authorities. It’s mum and dad’s view that the risk of Child transmitting Covid 19 from her school into the home is rising exponentially day by day. Every layer of anti-Covid 19 security that we can control and apply is already in place and working to their satisfaction. Nothing more can be done, yet it does not stop the continual search for even better security still.

Mum and dad’s appeal:

They think that now is the perfect timing (i.e. with everything falling apart once more) to announce:  politely, honestly, firmly, fervently, beseechingly, repeatedly; their appeal to everyone living and working in the same neighbourhood – this message is for all the neighbours, friends, passers-by, youngsters, retailers, shop-keepers, visitors, everybody:

Please, please, please, the first lockdown didn’t work, and we all know why! And we all know we are heading for another lockdown! (and YES, nobody wants to admit that yet) Let’s not screw up this time around. Going forward from this point, if we do not all work as one, protecting ourselves and at the same time protecting everyone we have to come into closer contact with, the virus will run rings round us yet again.

Their bottom line (1)

The cause of the Covid 19 pandemic is through human to human contact.  

It is perfectly possible for humans to behave in a manner that prevents that human to human contact.

This preventive behaviour is not rocket science. It can be done very easily, when there is a real commitment to do so. This means everyone can protect themselves, and by doing so, are also protected by everybody else.

Their bottom line (2)

So, taking the first bottom line on  board, everybody in a community must be encouraged, officially and unofficially, to operate their own personal / professional / environmental anti-Covid 19 security systems as one concerted, coordinated effort to keep everybody in that community safe; and, this effort must be maintained indefinitely, i.e. as long as it takes, to finally get an effective vaccination programme up and running. 

And meanwhile

• Optimising our general immunity readiness – adding in a dose of eight hours sleep to the mix

Whoopee!

Dad, alcohol free for a month, and caffeine free for two weeks, has finally had two nights of eight hours of sleep! After many long years of sleep deprivation! Is this the beginning of a new dawn or is it false? Whatever, his spirits have risen and he is happy to latch on to any passing straw. He thinks Professor Matt Walker, his sleep expert guru, would be proud of his persistence and urge him on to greater heights.  Yes, indeed, ‘Sleep is MY new superpower’

Mum, she is also alcohol free for a month, but continues (sadly!) to insist on two doses of coffee each morning (telling her that coffee is acid and stains her teeth made no difference to her resolve to keep going). She is making good progress responding to meditations from her favourite lullaby inducing speaker (she can now get to sleep easily). But, she is still to have her first little victory of a good night’s sleep. Her story of chronic sleep deprivation links directly to bringing up Child, who easily wins the title of ‘The Original Light Sleeper’. Mum (and Child!) still need to shake off this enduring legacy. I wonder why Prof. Walker gives no advice on how to get rid of that cause of sleep loss – not his game I guess.

• The other promoters of our general immunity readiness:

Still of high importance, but progress has stalled, no time, must release more time first.

Finally, after 52 days of exposure to school, what about Mum and Dad – are they coping?: Yes, still coping ‘as well as can be expected’ is the official weekly report. But, this now includes having to cope psychologically with new levels of concern (the euphemism we use for anxiety) at the recent deluge of new Covid 19 cases gripping the population. It is somewhat ameliorated by the huge feeling of sympathy and a special union with the millions of mums and dads who live, eat, breathe and survive in the same dirty virus laden swamp.

By John Saunders

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

Strengthening connections
while keeping distance

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