The Adjusted Normal, 36. The Virus Travels. Sometimes.
It was bound to happen sooner or later.
Very early yesterday morning, when a group of young men in Vilagarcía were deciding on which last bar to hit before retiring for the morning, they encountered another group of young men, but, from Madrid. Probably the locals recognized the others from their accent. Or perhaps they had already seen them around and knew where they were from.
At any rate, the locals recriminated the outsiders, telling them to go back to Madrid and stop bringing the virus here. Things got a little heated, perhaps someone mentioned someone's mother, and a fight erupted. So much for social distancing. In the end, eleven were detained, and the group of madrileños are filing charges for harrassment.
Yes, the general perception here is that the presence of the virus is due to outsiders bringing it in. The first known case back in March was a man who had travelled to A Coruña from Madrid. The others who were mostly affected, were senior citizens who had become infected on organized trips to the Mediterranean.
Sometimes, people do have cause for complaint, like the guy earlier this month who got on the intercity bus from Madrid to Vigo. He was running a fever, and sick with obvious symptoms. Yet he still got on the bus. The good thing was that on arrival, he went directly to the hospital, where he was immediately admitted to the ICU. The bad thing was the people on the bus who had to go into quarantine (and still are) because he was inconsiderate enough to go through with his journey, rather than go to the hospital in Madrid.
There were the cases at the beginning of lockdown when rich families from Madrid decided to go ride it out at their second residences, away from the city. One case was ex-prime minister José María Aznar, with his wife, ex-mayor of Madrid, Ana Botella. They left town to go down to Marbella, where they could be more comfortable, and among their own kind.
All these cases add up to a certain phobia of madrileños. People are not happy to see their summer neighbors arrive from the capital. Most are torn between the need for tourist income, and the desire to keep infection away from home. It's true that just because a tourist is from Madrid or Barcelona, they are not going to necessarily bring the virus with them. But no one has forgotten that Madrid was the epicenter of contagion during the lockdown, or that cases are growing exponentially again in Barcelona and surrounding towns. There is fear.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be enough. Some young people don't care whether or not they are infected. If they test positive, and don't have symptoms, some do jump quarantine. Our daughter heard about one who did that, but that person doesn't live here; they live in another region. Young people feel they're immortal, but they may discover people they love, aren't.
Let's try to keep our heads.
Life continues.
Very early yesterday morning, when a group of young men in Vilagarcía were deciding on which last bar to hit before retiring for the morning, they encountered another group of young men, but, from Madrid. Probably the locals recognized the others from their accent. Or perhaps they had already seen them around and knew where they were from.
At any rate, the locals recriminated the outsiders, telling them to go back to Madrid and stop bringing the virus here. Things got a little heated, perhaps someone mentioned someone's mother, and a fight erupted. So much for social distancing. In the end, eleven were detained, and the group of madrileños are filing charges for harrassment.
Yes, the general perception here is that the presence of the virus is due to outsiders bringing it in. The first known case back in March was a man who had travelled to A Coruña from Madrid. The others who were mostly affected, were senior citizens who had become infected on organized trips to the Mediterranean.
Sometimes, people do have cause for complaint, like the guy earlier this month who got on the intercity bus from Madrid to Vigo. He was running a fever, and sick with obvious symptoms. Yet he still got on the bus. The good thing was that on arrival, he went directly to the hospital, where he was immediately admitted to the ICU. The bad thing was the people on the bus who had to go into quarantine (and still are) because he was inconsiderate enough to go through with his journey, rather than go to the hospital in Madrid.
There were the cases at the beginning of lockdown when rich families from Madrid decided to go ride it out at their second residences, away from the city. One case was ex-prime minister José María Aznar, with his wife, ex-mayor of Madrid, Ana Botella. They left town to go down to Marbella, where they could be more comfortable, and among their own kind.
All these cases add up to a certain phobia of madrileños. People are not happy to see their summer neighbors arrive from the capital. Most are torn between the need for tourist income, and the desire to keep infection away from home. It's true that just because a tourist is from Madrid or Barcelona, they are not going to necessarily bring the virus with them. But no one has forgotten that Madrid was the epicenter of contagion during the lockdown, or that cases are growing exponentially again in Barcelona and surrounding towns. There is fear.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be enough. Some young people don't care whether or not they are infected. If they test positive, and don't have symptoms, some do jump quarantine. Our daughter heard about one who did that, but that person doesn't live here; they live in another region. Young people feel they're immortal, but they may discover people they love, aren't.
Let's try to keep our heads.
Life continues.
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