Category Archives: Uncategorized

Long time no see. I am here again. Writing to you. The corona virus situation in the world is serious. I have paid a lot attention to the (political) development in various regions and countries. There are so many variables to consider and that makes it very complicated. More than three dimensions. It is important to stay calm, because panic would not improve outcome.

Respect is very crucial. Some people still cough right into the face of other people. Spreading evil and illness on purpose. Several countries have introduced wearing face mask. It is not 100% protective, but at least it shows that you think of yourself as much as other fellow beings. The virus was, and probably is informed about this.

This biological terrorist attack will most probably occur again in the future. In a new shape. Early, Emmanuel Macron talked about an invisible enemy. I thought about the existentialist classic  “La peste” by Camus. Moreover, a field hospital has been built in Stockholm. I do not understand why they haven’t started to use this hospital immediately, or is that to accept that we have a war with an invisible army infront of us? Are we at war? If that is the case, I think we should accept and go for actions.

Stefan Löfven’s (prime minister of Sweden) huge current challenge is to have the different Ministries (departementen) talking to each other. This is not an easy task, because the government has been built in this way for decades. It is a conservative government where traditions are important. I truly hope that he will act with responsibility because after this pandemic has declined, and we know the result of the virus, the different Ministries could blame each other depending the outcome. Nobody will take the responsibility. Löfven has this duty in his hands.

Rather early I started to watch some scenes from M*A*S*H. As usual, smile helps to move on in life and that boosters the immune system. They mentioned some about Florence Nightingale being promiscuous. True or not, I don’t know. Take care.

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.