Opening Doors, but not to Risk

Professor Manuel Calviño explained it in his most recent program “Vale la Pena”, and it can be complicated, but you have to assume it, and do it as he suggested.

Within this new normalcy for Havana citizens and part of the country are living, we must begin to take certain paths, but with different paces. This can be inferred from what was explained by Calviño, who elaborated on the topic of how to resume relationships with family and friends.

Because we spent about half a year longing for and avoiding those visits at the same time, and now it’s time to open the doors to them.

Of course, there are those who opened them long time ago, who began to share celebrations and family lunches, perhaps even before sanitary measures were eased; but those who followed them out of responsibility and precisely out of love for those dear people, now they are gradually loosening the bolts.

The population has been informed of the unavoidable and diverse reasons that have sustained the transit through each of the phases in the well thought out government strategy, and also of how to proceed to avoid risks.

The need to return to this socialization has been pointed out - in the territories where it’s possible - also for the benefit of mental health, and several authorized voices have asserted, arguing about collateral damage caused or may occur as a consequence of prolonged social isolation.

For this reunions at home that a part of Cubans live, Calviño suggested certain provisions: preferably, if possible, that the windows be opened to have fresh and clean air circulate, the washing of visitor's hands on their arrival, and keeping the surgical masks and distances.

Undoubtedly, it must be difficult to have your relatives and friends in front of you who had been away for months, and not be able to hug and kiss them, but it will always far better to have them that way, within reach, of your gaze, than just behind a phone line or screen.

In moderation, foresight, and responsibility lays the keys to keep advancing through this different normalcy.

Those who "dared to jump head first" are today regretting it, just take a look at Spain, where, after a quick de-escalation, they are now devastated by a second wave of such scale that it placed that country as the first of the European Union in reaching one million infections and has now thrown them into a new state of alarm, including a curfew, which the government intends to extend until March, although it will have an initial validity of 15 days.

In general, all of Europe experiences record numbers of infections every week and governments are once again tightening measures trying to quell this second wave. This, while the United States takes the blunt of the blow worldwide, exceeding 8 million infections and more than 225 thousand deaths. Although painful, this was bound to happen when Trump continues to reiterate, as he did last Saturday at an electoral rally in North Carolina, that it’s "stupid" that his country does so many tests to detect Covid-19 and mocked the media for "not stopping talking about Covid"

That man who runs for presidency next November, and all those who in one way or another in the world have tried and attempt to minimize the risks of SARS-Cov-2, not only they play numb about the amount of infections and deaths, but they also try to ignore - or ignore it, who knows - the aftermath this disease leaves in those who suffered it.

However, the medical community continues to search for answers to these long-term consequences that don’t affect only the respiratory system, but it reaches the cardiovascular and central nervous system, including psychiatric, and psychological effects. It was not out of pleasure that the World Health Organization / Pan American Health Organization (WHO / PAHO) issued an Epidemiological Alert on Complications and Sequels on August 12^th.

All these data and reflections have had a single objective, to underline what Professor Calviño indicated and invite, once again, self-reflection, to maintain the designated biosecurity measures, and to weigh whether it’s worth playing with so many threats.