A Test of True Friendship
Good news: As of May4th, we will also be able to see friends, as long as they are real friends. In an interview, the Vice minister of Health Pierpaolo Sileri, clarified that friends could also constitute a stable relationship, and could therefore be classified as a “congiunti” (see last blog for clarification). He then urged people to use their common-sense in deciding who is a friend and who isn’t. My guess is that by now most people have a pretty good idea of who their real friends are (this pandemic certainly helped me weed out a few fair-weather folks), but I am not sure how much common-sense people have left.
In an environment where we are being bombarded with statistics and confusing (sometimes contradictory) information about a virus that we still don’t know a lot about*, sometimes it feels like common-sense has been replaced by alarmism and paranoia. I continue to see a lot of non-sensical use of PPE. I swear I saw a woman wearing a maxi pad as mask just yesterday. Also, how much common sense does it make to wear gloves for a walk to the park? Does it make sense to wear the same gloves you wore to open the door and push elevator buttons with to touch fruit at the supermarket, and then wear those same gloves in your car and possibly reuse them for your next outing? My common-sense tells me those gloves are filthy. The supermarket should insist people wear a fresh pair of gloves that they put on upon entry and remove at exit. Speaking of gloves, do you struggle with opening the plastic bag for fruit and veg while wearing gloves? I find it practically impossible.
Additional information is circulating about when we will be allowed to undertake interregional travel in Italy. It appears that the government has set a goal for an R0 of 0, 2 for allowing regional borders to reopen. This means that if the R0 goes back up after next week, we can kiss interregional travel goodbye for another while. Nonetheless, holiday destinations are beginning to prepare for a summer of physical distancing and are considering a series of safety measures. Among what’s being reported is: temperature checks at beach club entrances, the use of a bracelet that buzzes when you are too close to another human, and floating platforms out at sea that people can use for sunbathing instead of sitting on the beach. It’s going to be a weird summer.
*For an exceptionally interesting article about how Covid-19 affects the body, I highly recommend reading this piece in Science.