Today
saw the delivery of a packet of 10 disposable facemasks from China. I ordered them at the beginning of the crisis
and I was concerned about the projected late delivery date. How innocent that concern now seems! I felt that the crisis would probably be over
before we got a chance to wear them. How
naïve! Even the Tangerine Tale-Teller
seems to be frantically re-writing his own political history and explaining to
the American people that the virus that he downplayed as little more than mild
flu is now a merciless silent killer and, far from magically disappearing, will
be with us for the foreseeable future: Terminator Trump – how many ‘corporate
manslaughter’ deaths does he have on his bloody hands?
The same question could be asked of the
politicians in the UK and here in Spain.
One virus expert stated that the key to controlling and understanding
the virus was to “Test! Test! Test!” And
we are told that two thousand out of five hundred thousand health workers have
been tested in the UK. How can this
be? And who is to blame? Every day’s delay means fewer workers in
essential services and a greater threat of infection.
It
is with something approaching relief that I turn to the crappy weather we are
having in Castelldefels. I have often
said that weather in this country lacks the spitefulness of British weather, in
other words, the climate in Catalonia usually means that even on a rainy day we
have a portion (sometimes tiny) of sunshine.
Not over the last few days: overcast, miserable and wet.
My circuits around the pool have now taken
on a more drunken appearance as I have decided to ‘weave’ my way around the
perimeter to add difference to the monotony of a single direction. To an observer I must look like a robot
cleaner with a faulty coverage pattern as I veer one way and then another. I think that part of my reasoning for variety
is based on half remembered memoirs of prisoners who walked around their cells
for exercise, but always remembered to vary their direction in their confined
spaces because, because . . . I cannot quite remember why, but there was a good
reason I’m sure; dizziness, or unequal development or something. Anyway, it gives a different perspective and
that is essential as I go round and round and round.
The placid surface of the pool acts as a
weather indicator: if there is any rain in the breeze then the expanding
ripples let me make a decision about whether I continue my walk or call it a
day and have another cup of tea.
I marched around the pool this morning
listening to the panel of In Our Time on Radio 4 talking about the gin craze in
late C17th England. Only on Radio 4! There truly cannot be another radio station
like it anywhere in the world.
We
have had yet another period of 24 hours here in Spain where the death toll is a new 'record' of 963, and the total figures of deaths has passed 10,000. The figures of those infected
have passed those in China. We are in a
continuing nightmare – even if that nightmare does not really touch us in our
parochial confines in Castelldefels.
We are reliant on news of the ‘outside’
world from the Internet and continue to feel the anger of the frustrated as we
watch inefficiency, duplicity and greed define the parameters of the crisis.
Respirators seem to be the crystalizing
concept of futility in the battle against the virus.
Numbers of machines necessary to cope with the projected number of patients are thrown around with politicians
manufacturing plenitude with airy words while the hard reality of machines
linked to patients seems to be woefully inadequate.
We hear of uplifting stories of companies
using their resources to design, prototype and get to manufacture machines in
an amazingly short period of time; we hear of major engineering works retooling
to meet respirator demand – but then we hear of a depressingly high figure of hospitals
saying that resources have not got to them, and that a disaster is developing as they watch and wait.
In World War II, American shipyards
managed to launch three Liberty Ships for the cargo conveys for Britain every
two days; have we lost the ability to mass produce what is essential to meet the threats of crises in
the last seventy years or so?
Given the
greater interconnectedness of our world are we incapable of working together in
a meaningful way to ensure the equitable spread of equipment and
facilities? It certainly appears that we
have learned little from each new viral threat to our planet.
Without full testing we cannot know what
the virus is really doing. The lack of
testing in Spain, Britain and the US is the real 'killer' story. We obviously need to work to get mass testing
in place; but the reasons for its delay must be a key questions to be
asked when this pandemic is over.
Or perhaps it cannot be left until
them. They are questions that need
answers now and it needs those people who have obstructed and obfuscated to be
removed to save lives.
Every time a selfish, inefficient,
mendacious politician speaks, people die.
Let’s get rid of them now!
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