Category Archives: covid

five years of covid

14 Friday Mar 2025

Posted by in coronavirus, covid, health, hope

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,


It’s still so vivid for me. I’d just come home from a Decanter research trip to the Axarquía visiting Bodegas Dimobe, Viñedos Verticales and Bentomiz (where I spent the night) and the next day after lunch I went to Capuchinas Viejas. After which Susana drove me to the Santa Ana train station just outside Antequera and I got home about 9 pm on March 12th, 2020.

Of course I’d already been hearing “rumours” about the schools closing here because of what had been happening in Italy, then shops and restaurants were also mentioned, so the next day I popped over to Casa Morales to ask my family what was going on. And they had no idea. This was Friday. And then on Saturday March 14th everything shut down. Bang. Just like that. And life changed forever.

It started off being a bit surreal and we somehow had the notion that this would all be over in a few weeks, so people hunkered down and stayed home. Now in Spain we had a more rigid lockdown than most other countries. We were only allowed out of our homes (one person at a time) to go either to the supermarket or the pharmacy. And if you had a dog you were allowed 20 minutes but had to stay close to home. Otherwise we stayed home. For close to two months. During that time a few more shops and services were deemed “essential” and we all started wearing masks.

This was also when some bars and restaurants (I think my friends at La Azotea were the first) began offering take-away and delivery options.

I took to doing daily walks on my rooftop, with my music plugged in, going round and round like a hamster in a wheel, just to get a bit of fresh air, sunshine and exercise. I was lucky because it was just me and my downstairs neighbour Encarni (Peter was living elsewhere at the time, thank god) so it was allowed. It was prohibited to socialise on rooftops if you lived in a multi-dwelling building.

Then we were allowed to go out for walks, but without straying more than one kilometer from our homes. And you had to wear a mask. Walking times were assigned by age. By now it was May and already getting hot so elderly people were given the early morning cooler times, then other age groups at different times. Shortly after that bars and restaurants were allowed to open but only at 30% capacity. Memory is a bit fuzzy about this, but I think by mid-June most bars and restaurants were operating almost normally, especially if they had a terraza. Though vaccines were still many months away and it would be a year before everyone had their two required shots.

Of course much has changed since then, but sometimes I am almost nostalgic for those lockdown days. Obviously not for the death, fear and uncertainty because those were terrible dark times for many of us. But for a while it was almost like we all cared about each other and there was a glimmer of hope that we would come out of this crisis stronger and with a renewed sense of community and social responsibility. Instead… well, you can see for yourselves what’s happening. But dammit we were so close, or so I like to think. We missed our moment to shine. Fuck.

Oh, and COVID is not over. But you already knew that, right?

plague doctors

24 Friday Jan 2025

Posted by in coronavirus, covid, health, hospitals, sevilla, spain

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

The Plague Doctors of the middle ages put themselves at great personal risk to carry out their duties, much like any doctor would today. Oh wait, let me revise that. Much like doctors did during the first two years of the pandemic. These days doctors are more likely to be carrying plague (well, Covid) and are not taking any precautions in order to not pass it on to their co-workers or their patients.

Today Peter and I went to the Centro de Salud to make appointments for blood tests and I thought I would pop in to their drop-in emergency room and have someone take a look at my throat. Ever since I got that killer sore throat more than a month ago, which evolved into a big mucousy mess of a “cold” including a non-stop runny nose and chesty cough, well it’s never quite gone away. It’s more like it ebbs and flows, with some days feeling normal and then WHAM it’s back again. But each time it comes back with slightly different symptoms. Lately I’ve noticed a somewhat disturbing pain just above my clavicle on the right side of my oesophagus that I thought should at least be mentioned to a doctor. Since this “cold” first arrived I reckon I’ve done at least eight Covid/FluAB/RSV tests and so it kind of points to a possible bacterial infection.

Anyhow, after a short bus ride from hell crowded with unmasked people coughing and hacking all over the place we arrived at the Centro to find… the exact same scenario. I’d read about health centres and emergency rooms here being overwhelmed by “respiratory illness” patients and so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. But I was completely dismayed that NOBODY was wearing a mask. So the last thing I wanted to do was remove my mask in a small unventilated examination room with an unmasked doctor getting up close and personal to have a look down my gullet.

And so after making the blood test appointments (Feb 3) I decided to hold off and maybe try to see a doctor then if my symptoms are still a concern. But I mean… idiot selfish asshole people coughing all over everyone and not bothering to SIMPLY PUT ON A MASK is one thing, but oughtta-know-better professional health care workers doing the same… is unconscionable, to put it mildly. I honestly don’t know how they justify their behaviour when they are clearly putting their patients and co-workers at risk. THEY should be the ones setting an example but it’s like we’re living in the upside-down now.

For my food tours and wine tastings I require that people be fully vaccinated with the most recent Covid booster. Today a potential client (63 years old) told me that he and his wife went to get their flu and RSV shots a couple of months ago but – AT THEIR DOCTOR’S RECOMMENDATION – they did not take the Covid booster option. Wtf…

People always say that the medieval Plague Doctors looked scary… I say the present day ones are far scarier. Because they have the science to know better but choose to ignore it. And they don’t seem to care who dies or is disabled as a result. Shame on them.

baby hepa

20 Friday Dec 2024

Posted by in casa azahar, covid, health, home

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

,

baby hepa

Yes, I know I shouldn’t be buying anything right now but I’ve justified this in all kinds of ways. First of all because for the past two days I’ve had a killer sore throat, with accompanying ick, but no fever and (so far) still testing negative for Covid. BUT I’ve been taking the hepa filter into my bedroom at night, mostly for the cats and also to help keep whatever this is from spreading all over the apartment since it’s too cold to open windows now.

This morning I started thinking it might be a good idea to have a backup hepa so I had a look on Amazon and saw this one. It was less than half the price of my original one and I wondered why. Turns out the reason is because it’s only effective for spaces up to 17 sq meters (the other is up to 40). But you know, my bedroom is maybe 10 sq meters. So I’ve gone for it and brand new baby hepa will be here tomorrow morning.

It makes sense for all kinds of reasons. My bedroom is interior, meaning there’s a window that opens onto the patio, which is nice for light but I never open it (it wouldn’t be fresh air anyhow). The other rooms, including Peter’s bedroom, have balconies facing the street, with big doors can be opened. So the plan is to have baby hepa as the one that gets swapped around if anyone is sick (though it will mostly stay in my bedroom), with Mama Hepa still going 24-7 in the main living room/office.

Finally, it’s almost Christmas, so this is my Christmas present to myself.

we are doomed…

07 Monday Oct 2024

Posted by in coronavirus, covid, health, health & happiness

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

no vaxx

This is such bad news. Downplaying that an airborne vascular virus that affects multiple organs and the immune system is only dangerous to so-called at-risk “vulnerable” people is a total bullshit response to the ongoing pandemic.

It also feeds into the THEM vs US mentality, with people erroneously believing that because they think they are fit and have a healthy immune system that Covid poses no risk to them, and then treating so-called “vulnerable” people with either pity or disdain while totally denying that Long Covid exists (until it happens to them) and behaving, well, selfishly.

I’m still not sure how much this year in Spain actually differs from the previous Covid booster shots (winter 2022/2023), as those were also available with a roll-out programme that started out with the elderly but eventually covered everyone. So it’s not clear if this year the usual Flu shot campaign will include getting an updated Covid booster, or if you will have to belong to one of the “target groups” to be eligible. In any case, the Covid boosters have never been mandatory and I don’t even think the initial vaccines were either, other than being required by certain industries.

The danger is if Covid vaccines and boosters are denied to people who want them simply because they don’t fit into this random and ever-changing criteria of who are perceived to need them. They don’t do this with the Flu jab. Anyone can get one. So why would it different with Covid? Why do you have to somehow prove you are eligible?? It’s not like most countries don’t have enough of the booster shots to go around.

I think that THIS particular sort of “official” disinformation/misinformation (see quote below, from the article) irks the most because it downplays the actual reality of SARS-CoV-2 and is still trying to convince people that it’s “just a cold”. It’s pretty clear by now that Covid is much more than a respiratory illness, let alone “just a cold” and it’s also clear that nobody develops immunity to Covid (just like with Flu, hence annual boosters!) and that the “let ‘er rip” global approach to Covid continues to enable new strains of this novel coronavirus to basically get better and better at making us sick and rendering previous vaccinations and boosters useless.

What if I haven’t been vaccinated against Covid for two years?

If they do not meet any condition of vulnerability and do not belong to the target groups, vaccination is not recommended for those under 60 years of age this year. “At this time, considering the epidemiological situation and the acquired immunity of the population, vaccination against Covid-19 in people not included in the target groups is not justified,” the ministry of health said. In other words, the vaccination two years ago and the infections of the disease during the last four and a half years have generated sufficient immunity not to make mass vaccination necessary.

We are ALL vulnerable. Denying or downplaying the need for an updated Covid vaccine booster to the general public in the midst of an ongoing pandemic is unconscionable. Honestly, all of this makes me sick. I only hope it doesn’t end up actually making me (or you!) sick too.