Day by day new quarantine decisions are made by the Dutch government. Should there be a full corona lockdown for everyone? Or can we continue like this? No one is allowed to go to public places. Restaurants, bars and even public libraries are now restricted areas. Our hair has never been this long due to closed barber shops. What will I look like when this all is over?
By Erwin Sanders
Right now, I am still a groomed young Dutch man being quite sceptic about what is going on around me. How is it possible? Thousands of kilometres away citizens of the Chinese city Wuhan got a virus, and now we are all sitting home. In a social lockdown. If we like it or not.
Slowly the Netherlands is sliding towards a total lockdown where no one is allowed to go in or outside the house. Already we are not allowed to gather with more than just three people.
Is this the right way to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic? I don’t think so! Even if the government would decide to lock down my country for let’s say a week or six more, what will happen afterwards? No one will know because nobody can predict the future, and up until this day credible scientific data is missing. It is almost certain the virus pops up again and will proceed with attacking our elderly and weak people.
Stay home
For now, we are told to stay home as much as possible. ‘Stay home, stay home, stay home’ is the message. Empty streets, beaches and terraces everywhere. While the beautiful spring sun is shining. The moment where so many people have waited for, after a long dark and rainy winter.
What do Dutch people normally do when the sun shines for the first time? We massively go out to eat that first ice cream, get some of that necessary vitamin D during a first long spring walk. Unfortunately, we cannot do that this year. We have to stay inside, stay in our own gardens to avoid getting the country infected.
If we go out to the grocery store, we must keep a distance of 1,5 meters to avoid respiratory droplets from someone else land onto your mouth or nose. If those droplets land on your body or face, and the next time you touch your face, and then you rub your eye or nose, you will get infected. At least that is what we are being told.
Do not infect each other, be careful, keep your space. I must admit most of us trying as much as possible to comply with this rule. Does it really work? We will find out soon enough. So far, I say to the most of us: ‘great job in that and keep it up’. One day we will beat this virus!
Hysteric reactions due to the media
The power of the media is to publish news articles and write reports on things that matter. Preferably as fast and as accurate as possible. Today’s situation proves the media is really fast in spreading stories. It is spreading them faster than Covid-19 is spreading its bacteria upon us.
The comparison between those two is that they both destroy lives. Hysteric reactions everywhere due to daily updates of people dying and the small amount of beds on the Intensive Care. There are stories about people deliberately sneezing and coughing in public and the anxious reactions explode. The media almost guides people not forget to panic with such kind of stories:” Does he have the virus and if he or she is too close, will I be infected now?” Panic is everywhere.
Every day the news starts with an hourly update about many people are infected and how many deaths the virus caused within the last 24 hours. Please be stressed, please worry, please panic. If we keep this up day after day, week after week. What will happen to us?
All these actions are not going to change anything for anyone and will definitely not reduce the panic.
Post Covid-19
This virus is causing an unprecedented economic crisis due to locking down the people and shutting down many companies. The focus on all these precautions may stay in our system and could potentially cause a new systematically awareness of hygiene.
This could have a positive impact on our society. If very large groups of people keep on working from their homes to avoid going onto the streets to get infected or infect others, it positively impacts our environment.
If a big percentage of those people will choose to work just one or two days a week from their homes, how would the world look like in a few years? Will the waters of Venice stay clean, dolphins keep on getting closer in ports and smog will seriously decrease? Let’s not be too optimistic, but let’s stay positive. We are stronger and much more smarter than
Covid-19, and we will beat it together.
But until that moment I remain in corona lockdown
Erwin Sanders is positive young Dutch man. He is concerned with what is happening in the world, but he refuses to participate in the corona hysteria. He likes to stay positive instead.
