Category: COVID-19 Reflections (Page 1 of 4)

COVID-19: Voluntary isolation, day 3 Reflections, Italy

Yes, as the heading suggests, I am continuing the level of isolation we have had for two and a half months despite the easing of restrictions. My Italian neighbours and I last weekend shared our anxiety about the easing of the rules for the coronavirus lockdown not the least because of the crowding we saw around the bars when the rules allowed purchase of takeaway food and drinks in the previous couple of weeks. My American friends are also still anxious. We had planned to meet last evening but almost all decided it was too soon yet.

James McDonald,
17 May 2020

COVID-19, Lockdown, the end of Phase 2, Reflections on Australia, 17 May 2020

The fact that Australia has dodged a bullet with a relatively low number of COVID-19 cases and deaths could be its undoing as it is clear that enough people don’t take the ongoing dangers of the pandemic seriously enough, nor the ongoing incompetence of governments that refused to plan for the inevitability of the pandemic and dithered on action because they place a low priority on the liberty and welfare of the people.

We are not going to go back to “normal”, especially since politically Dutton “The Fascist” and those who embrace authoritarian totalitarianism are trying to seize the opportunity to turn Australia into an authoritarian state.

COVID-19, Lockdown, Italy Day 52

I realised the other day that this is my fifth consecutive Spring in Italy, and being indoors mostly, the one most missed. I first came over for three Schengen months in 2016 to decide whether I would try and live here for a longer period and, if so, where. I settled on Perugia. Who’d have thought, although at the time I had more or less made the decision in principle.

Well, this is an unexpected Spring, in lock-down and at least another month to come. Although some restrictions will be eased, the baseline of the period is staying at home, our personal protection and social conscience working together.
In the months before I came, Italy suffered the grief of the Amatrice earthquake and the Norcia earthquake, both in the province of Perugia, of which my city is the capital. And the sense of community and political leaders with empathy embracing survivors played a part in my decision. I have have not a single regret about coming here to live.

COVID-19, lockdown, Italy, Day 47

I had a couple of heart attacks 17 and a half years ago, who’s counting! The second one would have killed me were I not under an oxygen mask, which minimised the damage to the heart muscle, while having an angiography. I accepted I was dying, but woke up a day and a half later in the Coronary Care Unit after emergency heart surgery.