Day 9 - SkyLines from the French Lock-down: Dispatches #1 - News from the Trenches

Salut nos amis!   

The clouds are  gathering - but we will be strong and we will win this battle!

Yes, it's another day in March that feels like January.  Cold.  And I'm pretty sure that although it is drizzling outside, that's not the only reason it feels cold today.  I've been reading the paper this morning.  And it's not nearly as nice as writing to you.  So, I set the paper aside and I'm at the computer early this morning.  I'm sending you my first "Dispatch" from the battlefield.  Luckily, I'm in the third line - those who are doing their part by staying at home.  I'll share with you the information we're getting in France.  Thankfully, some of it is uplifting but you really have to look for it.  

Day 9 - Quarantine for a writer is almost like normal life.  For my partner, who is definitely an adventurer and an active athletic guy, it's a lot more difficult.   I love activity too but I'm okay with sitting for hours, thinking, doodling, making notes, doing research, and writing.  When he asked me how I can stand it, I kissed him on the temple and whispered, "Je suis ecrivaine." (I'm a writer.)

So, I put down the paper that I've been reading over breakfast and we talk.  He says, "Germany is doing better than we are, even though there are more people infected."  I look at the statistics and agree.  "Why do you think they are doing better?  It's colder up there but they say the virus doesn't mind that."  He sips his coffee and posits, "I think their hospitals were better prepared and better equipped." 

That is probably true.  We tend to think of Germany as being the rich cousin in the European Union  and as you might guess, Italy and Greece are the family members who have very little.

The military creates a field hospital in their
own country for the first time.

 But France is gearing up even now. The response is heartening.  The French military and the government have put together a military-style field hospital (l’hôpital campagne militaire) on a gigantic scale in Mulhouse, on the Swiss-German border.  The area has been hard hit. Unlike a MASH unit it's not for surgery to save those wounded on the battlefield but to deal with the growing cases of Covid-19.  What impressed me is this:  They did it five days.

The country is mobilizing to deal with the crisis.  Paris and the north are the hardest hitIt opens today to keep the general hospitals from being overwhelmed.  The military doctors are so much better prepared for the idea of war, I hope.  And it is a war.  This is not seasonal flu, no matter how much some people keep saying it is no worse than that.  You see, they don't really have a good grip on percentages or how an epidemic happens.  The seasonal flu on average has a death rate of about 0,01%.  It's a lot of people, because the population of the earth is large.  The 2018 flu jumped to 2% and that was why so many died that year. That's 200 times more deadly than the usual figure.  

Now, imagine this - a new virus is judged to be between 1.4% - 4% lethal.  (No one is exactly sure, so I'm giving the range.  America thinks it's the first number and WHO says 2 - 4%.) The point is, people are still going to get the  seasonal flu this year.  AND people will catch the new virus, which is NOT THE FLU.   It is even faster spreading and very easy to catch.  There will be many cases of flu this year and many more of Covid-19.  So double whammy. 

A factory reopens to make
oxygen tanks.

Good news - workers in Puy-de-Dôme went back to work today after having been laid off last year.  The English company who owns Luxfer de Gerzat  closed it last spring as they didn't think it was making enough money producing oxygen tanks.  Hey!  Suddenly we need oxygen tanks like never before!  And it takes three weeks to produce a tank.  Fortunately the factory is ready to go, it's been well maintained.  The same workers who for two months had been blocking the roads and complaining about the new government reforms are suddenly needed again.  And they say they are willing and ready to work.

Attitudes have changed in the blink of an eye from support for the general strike in France to Fraternity (Brotherhood or Unity.)  There was an announcement on TV just now that said there was a need for people who want to get outdoors to come and take employment bringing in the crops.  My partner said, "I could do that!"  I agreed.  He could, and I'll bet he's going to see if there is the possibility in our community.  Heck, come the summer, we may be picking peaches in neighboring orchards!

More good news - there is a shortage of oxygen masks for patients?  A doctor has figured out how to use diving masks to serve for the purpose.  He designed a valve to hook it up to the oxygen tank and they are 3-D printing them as I type.  It's what we humans are really good at - SOLVING PROBLEMS!

Sad because the outdoor markets are closed?  The stores have figured out that people are finally willing to put their orders online and pick them up at the loading bays.  This service has been around for at least ten years without taking off but suddenly it's become very popular!  Carrefour in the Paris area is doing the same but they are delivering to the people in the city - starting with orders of thirty Euros.  Smart move!

In our village - the stores that are open for food and medicine have posted their hours on our

The internet provider
sent a text with suggestions
on ways to not overload the
family's download capacity

Facebook group.  The bakery "La Mie Dorée (The Golden Crumb) has just announced that they will deliver bread to the outlying neighborhoods that are out of the 1 kilometer limit for leaving the house.  She said, You will hear me beep and you come get your orders.  She then gave the phone number for placing the order and said which areas she will be in and where to find her delivery van.  It warms your heart.  Aren’t we allowed to drive?  Well, yes, but only for essential needs.  And with parking at a premium in the village center, this delivery service will help.

Oh, the paper was full of sad stories too.  The number of deaths keeps rising and makes me cry.  Over 1,100 in France so far.  Horrid.  And nothing compared to Spain and Italy.  And then there is the sad behavior we humans are known for.  We hoard, we shun, we steal.  I joked about shopping at the hardware store feeling like we were buying paint on the black market.  But, that was just that - a joke.  There is a true black market going on now in medical masks.  A pharmacy in La Rochelle was broken into and ransacked for the sake of its 30 masks and a few bandages.  (Bandages?  I meanly hope that they took those because the scummy robbers had cut themselves breaking into the store.  Yes, I'm like that.)  In Paris, the masks bought from racketeers cost 10 Euros.  The police have already seized over 50,000 masks from these criminals.  Hopefully those will not sit in the evidence rooms but go to the hospitals where they are desperately needed.

If we don't slow this new one - and it spreads very quickly, more quickly than flu) in time to find a way to build immunity or come up with a safe vaccine, there will be between 140 to 400 times as many deaths from this as from the seasonal flu and there will also be deaths from the seasonal flu.  So, do we really think the economy is going to do well with fewer people to do the work, fewer people to pick the crops, fewer people to spend money... assuming there is money to spend?

Asking for a planet.  That's just math.  Yeah, I was a math teacher.  I know.  These numbers suck.  We need to be proactive.  I'm staying in today to write.  I'll probably be doing that for the next month or more.  There won't be a lot of photos taken for this blog today, but I'll try harder tomorrow.  It's how it is when we are practicing this "Social Isolation"  thing.  We writers do an awful lot this hermit at the computer stuff anyway.  But I'm not alone.  I'm thinking of you and wishing you the best.  It's an inspiration to think of all us doing this together.  Hey - Are you self-quarantining?  THEN I LOVE YOU! 

If you want to sing out, sing out!

So finally, I stopped thinking about the dispatches from the war we are waging.  I had a lovely lunch with my partner and we talked about other things.  Then we fixed a cup of coffee and went outside on our terrace because at some point while I was writing all the news, the rain had stopped and the sun came out.  He read but I felt the need to cheer for us - you and me doing our part in trying to lower the curve on that scary chart.  And so I sang.  And I will keep on singing.  We are doing this together and I know that eventually we will win!

À demain, nos amis!   Link to DAY 10