Monthly Archives: March 2020

This week, the WHO has declared the Covid-19 outbreak to be a pandemic. This is now a global issue. Countries worldwide make various actions. Closing borders. Closing schools. Spain has quarantine. Food stores are running out of groceries in Sweden. There are different views even among doctors how to react now. Political, common sense decisions are taken. This is where biology meets economics and politics. This very moment.

It is difficult to find alcogel right now, but soap and water is also fine. One should wash thoroughly for at least 30 seconds. I saw the WHO website and found this film from a few years ago. A lot depends on collaboration right now.

This headline is crucial now. To stay calm, show patience to people around you. Think of protecting yourself from getting infected, and also protect people around you by eg coughing in your arm. This coronavirus is not similar to the swineflu since it is a more complicated virus with regard  diverse epidemiological and biological characteristics. Today there is no vaccin, but fortunately China has released the RNA sequence so laboratories world wide can work and collaborate on a vaccin. They say it will take time, and it is time-consuming since they have to learn how to culture this virus in a laboratory, do animal testings and later clinical trials before the vaccin can be made available for human injections.

It is difficult to make conclusions from news about the virus. Has it reached the peak? Is the spreading under control? Etc etc. Something I have noticed is that it is a kind of SARS virus, and the world fought this virus in 2003. The 2019-nCoV is officially called SARS-CoV-2 and is the cause of the disease named COVID-19. Maybe some parallells can be found. To the best of my knowledge, one of the main focuses then, and successes, was to try to stop spreading the virus. Extreme quarantine measures, including sealing off large cities, closing borders and confining people to their homes. Isolate patients to minimize the disease burden locally and globally. You can find some from that time here: SARS 2003 People died in this global epidemic, and Dr Carlo Urbani working for the WHO in Vietnam, died protecting others as you can read about. The national and international response demonstrates the complex link between public health, science and politics when an outbreak threatens global economies and reputations.

Today is International woman’s day, but there is nothing particular going on in Sweden from what I have seen. It is celebrated in other countries like Russia I have been told. I remembered the voyage I did to Vietnam a few years ago where women have a strong position in society. Sharing a few memories.

I have followed SMHI this week, so I have been able to plan for a nice walk. On Tuesday SMHI promised sunshine on Friday and they were right. Since I am in Stockholm I could not have cutie or sweetie with me, so instead I had photos of dogs walking in the sunshine. They seemed to be very happy, and they must be very busy since they might find bones they have hidden previous seasons. Dogs forget where they hide, and then they are very happy when they rediscover their treats. Dogs are fun, and I hope I can find that dog karaoke I have heard of. The dogs sing along with sounds they like.

Walking is time for reflection, and today, I don’t know why, I thought a lot about Magdalena Ribbing. She passed away a few years ago, and she has written books and also quite a lot in “Dagens Nyheter”. In brief, she thought us how to behave. Sometimes there might be situations when you don’t know what to do, for example if you are going to a dinner and you don’t know what to bring for a gift. When to give a speech at the dinner. Or not. And in particular, what is allowed to say like politics and religion. Restrictions, politeness, behaviour, common sense etc. Maybe a little French. I think I have told you that I have a book about how to formulate a letter at various occasions such as work and other eg formal situation, but also to eg friends at certain occasions. I miss Ribbing, and I think it is time for DN (Dagens Nyheter) to find a new writer. I understand them since she is difficult to replace.

While walking today, I searched for early signs for spring. Spring is a month earlier this year. I had this photo above. Isn’t it nice? On Sunday, the 8th of March, it is the International Women’s Day. A global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. I have never done anything special on this day. Maybe I should. This Sunday I will work. How are you going to celebrate?