Chronicles of the Virus Day 16
In the end, nonessential workers are given today to set everything to rights for two weeks at home. So, my husband went to work, more than anything so that they can cover a roof so that when it rains later this week, people won't get wet.
Today it's much colder and the wind is strong and biting. It's sweeping everything away and I've had to collect pails and close windows tightly. Pollen is getting into every cranny there is to be found. This is now weather in which it is easy to fall ill. It's much worse elsewhere; on top of the new cold, it's supposed to rain and snow in the rest of the peninsula today and part of the week. Here, we're supposed to get some showers toward the middle of the week, and spring should return by the weekend.
Last night, on my Facebook feed, I saw that someone posted a blog entry on the 1918 pandemic here, in Rianxo. The second wave, in the fall of the year, seemed to have been much worse than in the spring. At its zenith, in the middle of October, 63 people had died, and over 2,000 were infected. That was in a population of about 8,600 people. To compare, now there are about 11,000 in the township. I don't know how many are infected, perhaps around 50? That I know of, no one has died yet.
There was only one doctor at that time, and he was also suffering from the flu. That left only four pharmacists. To help, native son, writer and politician, Alfonso Daniel Castelao, offered to help, even though he hadn't dedicated himself to medicine after he had finished his medical studies. He brought a friend, who was a doctor, from Madrid. Another who offered help was a doctor who had his summer residence by the beach at Tanxil, Ángel Baltar.
Things got so bad at the middle of October, that the church bells stopped tolling the dead. In all of Galicia, over 25,000 died from the flu that year. So far in this pandemia, it's been about eighty, from what I read yesterday. One of the reasons it was so bad in 1918 was because of the poverty, lack of running water and soap, and because quarantines were poorly imposed or enforced. Also, modern medicine helps now. Most of those who are in the ICU's now would have died a hundred years ago. Think of it this way: we are the descendants of people who survived that hell. We can survive this one.
People are keeping up morale by applauding health care workers every evening at eight o'clock. It's not just a Spanish thing; it's repeated in other countries.
Police are sometimes acting very tough, at other times, they're helping neighbors, such as an officer that brought food to an elderly lady living alone. He stood on his car and handed her the food on her balcony. Then there are the musical cops that appear and sing or reproduce songs to help neighbors, especially kids, pass the time.
Neighbors are getting together, even if it's only on balconies or at windows. Most help each other, even though sometimes there is a neighbor or two that has decided to become high inquisitor for the street, and calls the police on people who are innocently walking their dog without excess, or going to the supermarket. Some, also, insult those parents who are allowed to take their autistic child for a walk. Parents of autistic children are allowed to do that because their children have a routine that they need. Not every neighbor understands, but the majority do.
There are dogs that are getting tired of being walked. The police have cracked down on the entrepreneurs who rented out their dogs, but that doesn't mean that neighbors don't call on the one person in their apartment block to borrow the dog. There are videos of dogs running to hide upon being shown the leash.
And so it goes, day by day.
Life continues.
Today it's much colder and the wind is strong and biting. It's sweeping everything away and I've had to collect pails and close windows tightly. Pollen is getting into every cranny there is to be found. This is now weather in which it is easy to fall ill. It's much worse elsewhere; on top of the new cold, it's supposed to rain and snow in the rest of the peninsula today and part of the week. Here, we're supposed to get some showers toward the middle of the week, and spring should return by the weekend.
Last night, on my Facebook feed, I saw that someone posted a blog entry on the 1918 pandemic here, in Rianxo. The second wave, in the fall of the year, seemed to have been much worse than in the spring. At its zenith, in the middle of October, 63 people had died, and over 2,000 were infected. That was in a population of about 8,600 people. To compare, now there are about 11,000 in the township. I don't know how many are infected, perhaps around 50? That I know of, no one has died yet.
There was only one doctor at that time, and he was also suffering from the flu. That left only four pharmacists. To help, native son, writer and politician, Alfonso Daniel Castelao, offered to help, even though he hadn't dedicated himself to medicine after he had finished his medical studies. He brought a friend, who was a doctor, from Madrid. Another who offered help was a doctor who had his summer residence by the beach at Tanxil, Ángel Baltar.
Things got so bad at the middle of October, that the church bells stopped tolling the dead. In all of Galicia, over 25,000 died from the flu that year. So far in this pandemia, it's been about eighty, from what I read yesterday. One of the reasons it was so bad in 1918 was because of the poverty, lack of running water and soap, and because quarantines were poorly imposed or enforced. Also, modern medicine helps now. Most of those who are in the ICU's now would have died a hundred years ago. Think of it this way: we are the descendants of people who survived that hell. We can survive this one.
People are keeping up morale by applauding health care workers every evening at eight o'clock. It's not just a Spanish thing; it's repeated in other countries.
Police are sometimes acting very tough, at other times, they're helping neighbors, such as an officer that brought food to an elderly lady living alone. He stood on his car and handed her the food on her balcony. Then there are the musical cops that appear and sing or reproduce songs to help neighbors, especially kids, pass the time.
Neighbors are getting together, even if it's only on balconies or at windows. Most help each other, even though sometimes there is a neighbor or two that has decided to become high inquisitor for the street, and calls the police on people who are innocently walking their dog without excess, or going to the supermarket. Some, also, insult those parents who are allowed to take their autistic child for a walk. Parents of autistic children are allowed to do that because their children have a routine that they need. Not every neighbor understands, but the majority do.
There are dogs that are getting tired of being walked. The police have cracked down on the entrepreneurs who rented out their dogs, but that doesn't mean that neighbors don't call on the one person in their apartment block to borrow the dog. There are videos of dogs running to hide upon being shown the leash.
And so it goes, day by day.
Life continues.
Thank you, Maria. I am thinking of you.
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