Coronavirus - International stories and thoughts

A new coronavirus variant is seen spreading across Europe, research says

 

hopefully it has a lower mortality

 

time to shut the borders

 

It’s been three months since I saw another human face besides [my partner’s].

Seven months since [my partner] and I had a little break together in the form of going and having a coffee down the street.

Over a year since I last sat out in nature. Sitting staring at the wall for two hours, again, unable to move.

Despair

Horrible negative emotions virtually all day.

Awake and tired nights, distress.

I can’t think of anything to look forward to because I don’t know when we will be allowed to do anything.

Just go for a drive, go to the forest.

Just go somewhere together, far from all this.

We are not allowed.

The police could enter our homes at any point and arrest us if we say the “wrong” thing online. That has happened.

This doesn’t feel human.

I don’t smile.

I don’t laugh.

I worked out the other day and I felt nothing, no pain.

Nothing would register as pain.

I couldn’t feel anything.

I feel far away from myself.

Sometimes I forget how long the day has been going for.

Does it matter?

You’re not allowed to leave, even if family members are terminally ill. They could die before we are let out of Melbourne. We got told it isn’t a good enough reason to be let out.

You aren’t allowed more than five kilometers from your house.

You aren’t allowed to buy a takeaway coffee and sit under a tree or on the ground anywhere that isn’t your house.

This isn’t human.

This isn’t human.

This isn’t human.

This isn’t human.

There is no empathy here.

No price is too high.

Suicide is not too great a price to pay.

Self-harm is not too great a price to pay.

Structural brain changes in large portions of the population is not too high a price to pay.

Do you know what prolonged social isolation does to the brain?

We are made to feel it does not matter because all we are, are numbers.

We are not people; we are the masses without a say

Without a time period to look forward to when we can hug again

I am sharing my experience because you should know the truth.

Sincerely,

A faceless number in Melbourne.

 

Maybe my math is off, but the coronavirus pandemic hasn't been a year yet, has it?

 

Nope. It has not. Lockdowns even in Asia started in January. In Australia? Not sure, but it was obviously after January, and I’m not sure what would stop a person from seeing “nature”.

Must be another fictional character making the rounds through right wing media. Or a time traveler from a few months from now.

 

Unfortunately it probably doesn’t matter, as the timing might be such that Antibodies from February/March would likely be wearing off regardless of same strain vs different strain.

Hopefully it’s far less deadly overall. Nobody really knows what happens with reinfections yet, the cases are limited so far.

 

I could only find it on the radical libertarian Mises Institute's website. It was a friend of a friend of a Mises contributor.

 

Sweden, having refused to lock down, is now bringing in tougher COVID-19 restrictions as cases and deaths soar. 'This is the new norm,' the prime minister said.

 

Sweden probably doesn't need as much restrictions as some other countries though. Public messaging and relying on the population to be responsible can work to an extent, but it does need consistent public messaging and a responsible population. It seems like Sweden has those two things done fairly well.

 

His takes have proven time and time again to be completely off. Just shockingly bad.

 

Sweden’s death rate (adjusted for population) is 4.6 times that of Denmark, just the other side of the Oresund Bridge.

 

I think you're thinking of Tegnell, not Erikkson. Tegnell seems to have recently been sidelined by the Swedish government.