my corona letter to Love/ no.5

Dear Love,

On Friday the 4th of December, I tested positive for COVID-19. Since March, I was always super paranoid about this virus, not knowing what it was or how the symptoms felt like. I heard people saying it's like the flu. In February, I was in bed for a week with the flu, and because of that, I somehow persuaded myself that I already had it.

Funny world we live in. But I don't blame the people; I tend to do that a lot. The government has failed to take measures. I got COVID-19, not because I wasn't obeying the measures, quite the contrary. Those that know me can reassure you that I always wore my mask. I would regularly wash my mask or use disposable ones when I taught kids to change them regularly. I would never wear the same mask, like never. I would wash my hands, use hand sanitizers, COVID, or no COVID. There was a time that my friends got so fed up with me that told me that they don't want to discuss anything about coronavirus again. I was tiresome.

For the past nine months, on every social media or mainstream media outlet, we have been bombarded with some "experts" saying that this virus is nothing to be worried about. The government is purposely spreading fear to control the masses. I even read in many places that more people die from influenza compared to COVID-19. Then I saw the anti-maskers, protesting (in the middle of a CONTAGIOUS pandemic) their refusal to wear their mask because it goes against their freedom of speech/choice. Fine, I am not questioning your right to protest. What I should ask is…. what did the government do to ensure that its people won't perceive the pandemic's measures the way they did? In other words, to put it simply and clear, how did the government communicate the pandemic to the people?

As soon as I tested positive, I started thinking of how the government dealt with the pandemic. In the past months, we only hear that we will be punished during the Christmas holidays with a lockdown if we don't stay home. I could not care less if I go out in a fancy, overpriced, overrated restaurant. My family does not do that, anyway. We celebrate Christmas at home - always. But anyway. Psychological bullying? Really? From the ones that are supposedly there to protect us? Is this how one successfully communicates a pandemic to the people who have no idea how this thing even started?

Then we had local lockdowns that failed miserably to control the numbers, but they went on and extended the same measures that had zero impact to the rest of Cyprus, and meanwhile, COVID-19 was spreading uncontrollably. The churches remained open. Who can go against the establishment in this country anyway? Restaurants could not work in their full capacity (they had to close at 7 pm), but they were not allowed any governmental support since, by governmental rules, they were operating just fine. That's criminal.

At schools, the teachers tried to communicate to the kids why they should all wear their masks. The government never did that. Instead, they fined 300 euro to each citizen that was seen outdoors without their mask on. They had time to prepare, build, or improve the existing infrastructures of public schools. To train teachers in remote teaching. Plenty of time to do that. You know the weather in Cyprus is nice and warm. We even got an extended summer, but instead, they opened schools without a plan B. I teach at a school, and I can assure you, Love, that schools were turning into little coronalands. I no longer buy the excuse "oh, the government never handled a pandemic before. How can they know?". No, this time, I believe that they do not care. And here we are in the now, few weeks before Christmas, with a kind of lockdown that could have happened a month ago. Too little, too late. The community is already way infected for the numbers to fall.

The government had one job. ONE job. To be responsible. To protect the elderly and the vulnerable. To communicate the seriousness of the situation. Instead, they failed, and with their failure, they triggered all conspiracy theorists. They generated disbelief. They contributed to the economic and psychological draining of the people.

And no, COVID is not like the flu. This is the day, i-lost-the-count, without smell and taste, isolated in a house outside Larnaka, and trust me, I might have no clue what I am eating, but I sure as hell feel the stigma. So here I am. I got COVID-19, and sadly, most of us are going to get it. Because, too little, too late.

Until next time Love,

Stay safe.

Yours forever,

Vasileia

parts of the diary of my quarantine /