azdak

About 3 weeks ago, Austria and the UK had roughly the same number of confirmed cases of coronavirus. A few days later, Austria moved into very strict lockdown, while Boris Johnson blithely adopted Dominic Cummings' ideas about herd immunity and protecting the economy, went around shaking hands with everyone, and caught covid-19 himself. A bit less than 3 weeks later, the UK has had 3,605 coronavirus deaths and Austria has had 168.

Sweden will be the test case. They're following the herd immunity strategy and so far they've only had 333 deaths. Perhaps the Swedes are disciplined enough to keep 1 metre distance from everyone else, wash their hands properly, and not shake hands. Perhaps that will be enough. But it has to be said that the strategy has proved a disaster for the UK.

Re-reading Emma (corona, dontcha know, it strikes me that what Emma wants from Mr Knightley is not actually a husband but the father Mr Woodhouse was never able to be. It's not just his age, it's the whole being able to admire child!Emma's intelligence, talent and good taste in books, whilst wryly acknowledging that she never quite lives up to her promise; it's him being the only person who has ever been able to criticise as well as praise her; it's the moral guidance he provides; it's married!Emma never being able to call him George. Mr Woodhouse, meanwhile, has evidently long been the child to Emma's parent. After 8 years of coaxing him along like a delicate toddler, it's no wonder she yearns for someone with authority to guide and judge her. And I think Mr Knightley would make a terrific father to Emma. AS a lover, though, it's all rather creepy.

To lose ONE health minister to coronavirus may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose TWO looks like carelessness.

Yesterday Hussein, who is a very sweet boy, announced that he would like to cook for us but that the only thing he knows how to cook is Afghan rice. I said in that case I'd make something to go on top, and so dinner was a team effort. It turns out Afghan rice is fantastic. It's longer and thinner than, say basmati rice, and Hussein cooks it with oil and lots of water and then drains it in a sieve, yet it's still light and fluffy. This may solve our cooking rice on Akka problem - so far we've had to use boil-in-a-bag rice, which of course involves unnecessary plastic waste, but the alternative has always been to have it burn at the bottom of the pan. Now all we have to do is lug 20kg of Afghan rice up to Sweden with us.

My mother has joined her street's What's App group and had her first delivery of food via a neighbour, so I am feeling much better about her. The group makes her feel less alone, and she's finally starting to take self-isolation seriously, although while we were on the phone, she said "Oh, I've got to go, one of my friends is at the door," leaving me screaming down the line "At least make sure you stand six feet away while you talk to her!" Then I sent her this compilation of Italian mayors yelling at people to obey lockdown (I have great sympathy for the person who wanted a mobile hairdresser to come round, next time I hear a global pandemic is on the cards, the very first thing I shall do is get my hair cut). Anyway, have some gloriously outraged (and one very calm) mayors: https://twitter.com/protectheflames/status/1241696164782669824?s=09

No one wants paid translation work right now, but the odd bit of stuff drifts in now and again from people who would like it done unpaid. I'm more than happy to help the refugee charities who are currently trying to put pressure on the EU to airlift out people from the hell that is Moria and the other Greek island "camps", but I am not yet sufficiently bored to take on 5 pages of PDF explaining how fungal spores can save the world from covid-19.

Yesterday was a very worrying day. My mother, who is 78 and lives alone in London, rang me up and said "I've realised I'm going to die!" She had been to Tesco's, where she had been exposed to a heaving mass of potential virus vectors, but had been unable to buy anything because it was all sold out. "I'm down to my last potato!"

After a moment of horror it transpired that three different sets of people had in fact offered to go shopping for her, but because of her fear of being a burden, she hadn't taken them up on it. I made her promise to contact them, but in fact what she did was a follow a rumour that the local shops in nearby Twickenham had plenty of veg, so she went there and stocked up. While out, she heard a rumour that Tesco's had just had a delivery and was able to secure four pints of milk. So at least she won't starve during the next few days of rabid hoarding.

I also tried very hard to persuade her to go and live with my sister in Edinburgh because we don't want her facing coronavirus all alone, but after several long and emotional conversations, and a lot of organisational work behind the scenes to prove that her practical objections could all be overcome, I have been forced to accept that she doesn't want to go. She would rather get ill in familiar surroundings and, if it comes to it, die there than up sticks overnight and move out. This strikes me as a relatively easy thing to accept when no one's gasping for breath, but it's going to be awful when it turns into reality.

I'm sure that after her "success" at shopping yesterday, she won't have asked people to do that for her, either. I will point out to her today that it's not just a question of how willing she is to risk infection, she's also potentially passing the virus on to everyone else at the shops, including the staff, and they may not be as sanguine about dying as she is.

On the other hand, it is great news that the British government has finally - finally! - woken up and smelled the roses and that practical socialism is being introduced. I hope so much that something good will come out of all this, namely the realisation that, pace Maggie, there IS such a thing as society and we are all in it together. The rich can't isolate themselves from the poor, they need all those underpaid workers to keep food on the shelves and hospitals open, and they need the unemployed and homeless to have sufficient resources to self-isolate if epidemics are to be held in check.

Here in Austria there's a note of hope. The measures seem to have already slowed the rate of infection, although we have to wait a few more days to see if this is more than just a statistical blip. The Health Minister also reported yesterday that, unlike in Italy, where the highest rate of infection is found amongst old people, here the age groups 45-55 and 25-45 show the highest rates, with the over-65s coming in third. That means that fewer people who are infected need hospital treatment, and at the moment we only have 13 people in intensive care, although obviously that's expected to continue to rise.

Restrictions have been extended to April 13 and cyclists have been told that they mustn't ride in groups or go out for very long rides. I can't say I'm surprised - we saw so many people on bikes when we cycled into Vienna to see Tashi that we decided not to go cycling again. But the beautiful weather is now over so people won't be as tempted anyway.

Wolfgang had an afternoon snooze yesterday and then came downstairs to announce cheerfully "I love quarantine!" And Bexy's little dog, Nala, went for a 10km run with Flo (Bexy's fiance)followed by a 7 1/2 hour walk with Flo's dad, AND she has her people at home all day, so she totally agrees with him. It's an ill wind that blows nobody good!