01 Answering a message from the USA

Times of Coronavirus:

Life in Spain

April 1: A letter in answer to a friend in the USA, who asked me how the “flu season” was going in Spain and whether I was all right.

Dear XXX,

I hardly know how to answer the question in your e-mail. I guess that the answer is no. No, I am not all right. Spain is about the size of Texas, and right now there are over 100,000 cases of coronavirus....and counting. Unless one has a death wish, everybody who goes outside wears a surgical mask and plastic gloves. In any case, no one goes out very much because it is only possible to leave one's house or apartment to buy groceries or medicine, and then, only to the store or pharmacy nearest your house. If people do not leave their house for a good reason, they receive a fine of at least 600 euros. All businesses and educational institutions are closed down except for pharmacies, drugstores, and stores where food is sold. Everyone who can, works from home. Those who can't work on the computer screen do not work. Even with such a strict lockdown, the contagion still continues.

The hospitals all over the country are filled to overflowing with coronavirus patients. The military has set up field hospitals in tents, gymnasiums, and conference centers in cities everywhere. There are currently a total of about 8,600 deaths, and everyday sets a new record. My oldest son, who is a psychiatrist, has been recruited to work in intensive care in Madrid. His hospital of 500 beds has stopped receiving any emergency cases except for coronavirus patients. Four hundred beds are for intensive care; the other 100 are for those in recovery. People who get better are sent off to medicalized hotels to get better. All treatments and operations have been postponed sine die. If you have a heart attack, stroke or cancer, you are toast.

It is a miracle that my oldest son has not fallen ill because there is no protection equipment for the doctors or drugs and ventilators for the patients. The doctors are thus obliged to choose which patients will live and which will die. Once people are taken off ventilators, they asphyxiate. Given the unpleasant nature of this type of death, some doctors have opted for giving patients morphine (of which there is no shortage) so that they can at least die in peace. Danny returns home in the evening, utterly exhausted, and there is no end to the nightmare.

My youngest son, who is a policeman, has been off work because he was put on quarantine. His partner was diagnosed with coronavirus but fortunately, Lucas did not get it. On Friday, he goes out to work again....also without protection. My daughter, the forensic doctor,, fortunately, can work from home except the days that she is on call. However, because of the lockdown, no one dies on the street any more. Everyone dies in the hospital. In fact, the hospital has become THE place to die. My son told me not to even go near a hospital unless I had a raging fever and could not breathe.

Our government leaders have been incredibly stupid and still do not have a clue about what to do. A lot of them have even fallen ill to the less deadly version of the illness, which is a great pity. I had thought that the mistakes of Italy and Spain would teach the USA about the folly of taking decaffeinated measures, but apparently not. Each state makes its own rules. So, the USA seems to be going in the same direction as Spain and Italy. Since the country is bigger, it may take a little longer, but the coronavirus will eventually trickle down to South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming, where no one cares because their state has not been severely affected yet. In Texas, My second son, who is a pilot living in Texas, has only noticed coronavirus because schools are closed and meetings of more than ten people are discouraged. He is more worried about the economy. Unfortunately, I think that in a few months, things will get very bad there, and people will stop living in La-La Land. Since the country is bigger, there will eventually be even more deaths than there are here. I have stopped chatting with people from the USA who say that this is like the flu. It is not.

It is true that the deadly version of the coronavirus mostly affects those over 60, who are presumably expendable and can be sacrificed to the economy. In the past, ancient civilizations used to sacrifice virgins. I guess in modern times the elderly are now the new human sacrifice. However, as the disease spreads, it also hits younger people. I now know various people who have had coronavirus, two of whom are dead. One of the deaths was a man in his 50s, who used to live in my building.

So, no, I am not all right. And yes, I hate the coronavirus too. The only hope is for someone to find a magic bullet, but I am not optimistic about this possibility. Lately, I am optimistic about very little.