Covid – Understanding the Young - A Suggestion

After my Idiots or S***heads blog, in which I asked, “What should one wish all those, who do not even have the decency to respect the discomfort and the fears of others?”, I had a response from a friend of mine, that surprised me. Using rather strong language, he passionately objected to what I had written. He described how the lives of young people, such as his children, were significantly affected. He labelled the requirement to wear masks as a “muzzling ordinance” and spoke of the enormous impact on our social climate, which is increasingly characterized by fear and authoritarian official hyperactivity. In further correspondence, the extent of his anger became even clearer.

 

Is he right? Indeed, in this pandemic, the older generation – provided it stays healthy ­– is paying a much lower price than the younger ones. The retired are not losing their workplaces, and their income, in most likelihood, remains unchanged. Lifestyle-wise too, young people are required to give up more. As you get older, you normally stick to the friends you already have. Youth culture is very much about meeting new people, trying out. All of that, they are expected to give up. This is not easy. Nor, of course, is it easy for the old who live on their own, for whom, lockdowns can be very lonely.  

 

And this is where it becomes even more difficult. Most of those getting really sick are the very old and frail. So, why should the young, who can afford to get infected, as they are extremely unlikely to die, even if they do get infected, be prevented from going on with their lives, as usual?

 

This has become a moral dilemma. A dilemma leading, not only to creaking, but to real cracks.

 

Hospitals’ inability to handle too many cases at once, are the main reason for drastic lockdowns. To prevent Italy and New-York style hospital meltdowns, governments heighten our fears. But, as young people rarely get hospitalised, this fear message is not really convincing them.

 

Perhaps we should rethink.

 

Perhaps the way to go about it, would be for young people to be permitted to continue with their lives, whilst putting all the emphasis on defending the old? That is, defending the old, without keeping them locked inside their homes for the next six months. To that end, part of protecting the older people, would mean ensuring that when young people are out in shops, buses, restaurants, or any general-public crowded areas, they stick to the rules, wearing masks etc., with no ifs and buts. Not half-heartedly, without faking it, out of respect for the rest.

 

Regulating differential conduct within society will not be easy to implement. But it may reach many of those, who currently cannot be convinced. It could, therefore, be easier to promote and also easier to enforce.  

 

This is not an operational plan, but a concept, and I am eager to hear your reactions.

Corona and the Salzburg Festival

On the 20th of May, I blogged “Austria, the country that gave us Ischgl, source of corona contamination this winter, is now preparing a similar hotspot for the summer.“

And now, I have succumbed to the temptation and am also here. A couple of days ago, I went to the premiere of Cosi fan Tutte, conducted by Joanna Mallwitz and directed by Christof Loy. The splendid clean and clear lined sets made by my friend Johannes Leiacker were a special bonus. It was wonderful: wonderful to go to the opera again, after all the Corona shutdowns of cultural life, and a truly wonderful production. Splendid young singers, who not only sang beautifully but also acted convincingly. An all-round elating evening.

The Festival’s PR machinery has been trying to virally spread the news of how disciplined their hygiene and prevention of infection measures are. No intervals to lower mingling risks, certain “social distancing”, as one was sat in a chessboard pattern and only half of the seats were filled. But the fact is that you get 1000 people spreading those dreaded aerosols in the closed space of the opera house. More than that, once the performance started, people were permitted to take off their masks. I didn’t. Very many did. In fact, I wore an FFP2 mask, that supposedly also protects the wearer throughout the evening.

 

One of my friends sent me a link to an interview with the Festival’s president with a comment “charming lies”. Well, charm is a matter of personal taste. I do not trust messages, statements, interviews with salespeople and the Festival’s president is trying to sell her product. Tickets, in fact, are still to be had. This is unprecedented, like so much else in these Corona times. This saleswoman has an uphill struggle.

Was it wise to go? No. Is it responsible to stage events? No. The least they should have done would have been to make wearing of masks during the whole evening compulsory. Austria succumbed to the powerful Salzburg lobby – it should not have. I can but hope, both egoistically and generally that we will not pay with our health for this experience.

arte have recorded the performance of Cosi, which can be watched here. It will be available until 30 of October 2020. Definitely worthwhile.

Corona-mode museum visits

Today, I spent a few hours in Kassel’s wonderful Wilhelmshöhe museum, with its impressive collection of old master paintings. Tomorrow I will be visiting the Städel in Frankfurt to visit its En Passant - Impressionism in Sculpture exhibition. These are wonderful times to visit museums. They are delightfully empty and remind me of what museums used to be like in my youth – before mass tourism started filling museums with busloads of visitors, most of whom are totally uninterested and just chatter away, whilst their guides talk them through their visit.

To whet your appetite, this was Poussin’s idea of fun:

Personal vs. Societal Risk

(Not only) Germany is lifting some of the Corona restrictions. Many seem to understand this relaxing of constraints as an indication that the virus is no longer that dangerous. This reading of the situation is dangerously wrong.  

An immediate result is that one can already see many, especially younger people, congregating in groups in public areas. Such groupings, very quickly, lose the self-discipline that is required to maintain the distance, that is necessary to reduce the risk of infection.

The truth is that the virus, for those who become infected, has not lost any of its lethal potential. The only, albeit very significant, difference is that our health systems are now better prepared than they were on day one. Politicians, who now are less worried about the likelihood of overfilled hospitals turning off ventilators to the over 70s, and especially of photos of body bags overfilling the morgues, are therefore yielding to public and business pressures to restart the economy.

As it seems that the virus is more likely to kill the old and frail, and as, as I predicted more than a month ago, solidarity has not lasted, and as:

1. The regulatory masks do not protect their wearers. Their purpose is to prevent us from infecting others.

2. Masks are compulsory only in shops and in public transport. Indeed, very few people can be seen wearing masks outside the required areas.

3. The drive to get people to constantly and thoroughly wash their hands and disinfect surfaces is unlikely to be adhered to by the majority of the population.    

older people have the choice between:

a. Staying home, keeping themselves as isolated as possible, until a vaccine is found. This was Boris Johnson’s original message to the British public: business as usual, but over 70s should stay at home for the coming months.

b. To avoid locking themselves up, and as they cannot expect general respectful and kind consideration – resort to better defence mechanisms than the simple mask. The visor mask, which I showed on this blog, some weeks ago, would be my current choice. The mask has an added advantage that it makes the to-be-avoided inadvertent touching of one’s face rather difficult. Mine is home-made, but visor masks  are also cheap to buy.  

Wearing the visor mask does not take care of virus carrying surfaces – a subject about which no conclusive information is as yet to be had. So, hand washing and sanitising must be strictly adhered to, regardless of what the majority of the population does.  

Solidarity III - elastic

Is solidarity a natural trait or one which we have developed over generations, having found solidarity to be a profitable strategy? Without going into that question, the issue of solidarity has hit us in the Corona context on various levels. On the international level, with questions of full open and honest information exchange (did China or did it not etc.) and soon thereafter in the world-wide hunt for ventilators, masks and other hospital supplies. Once a vaccine will become available, the rush to be first in the delivery line is likely to be brutal.

On the personal level, the first weeks of Corona saw most people take the requests, instructions and regulations seriously. As people are getting used to living with Corona, self-discipline is weakening. It appears, that kindness shown through solidarity, requires the right dosage of fear. Too much fear produces a dog-eat-dog state, in which we steal supplies from each other. Too little fear makes us disregard the risks which others may be subject to. In the first few weeks, there was just the right amount of fear. This is now, for the time at least, over.

Corona and Culture

As soon as Corona closures hit the world, many opera companies, orchestras and theatres began offering free access to their streaming services. At the same time, news started to spread about performing artists and especially self-employed artists, who have no job security, losing their jobs.

There is really no reason for the streaming of performances to be made available free of charge. The companies should be encouraged to continue performing and sell on-line access to their performances.

During wartime, some governments subsidised the arts to entertain the population. Now, instead of spending money on unemployment benefits for artists, who after all want to perform, governments could subsidise orchestras, theatre and opera companies and pay them to perform and broadcast.