New Year, New “Things”???

After 5 years from the first one, my second book was published… even with the Covid pandemic, the surge of the new variant Omicron, the thousands and thousands of people that are infected, in spite of this and in the middle of all this.
The main interest of “writing” is to communicate, to inform, to share ideas, anguish, joy and sorrow, but for me, it is above all to communicate with those around you, to bring your thoughts, your own stories out into the light and hope that all of that can be interesting and useful and that other people will think about it and enjoy it… in many different personal ways.
Things are what they are, but they are also what they are because of what are the ones that they coexist with.
We are living in the middle of terrible confusion and insecurity, and the arrogance of man was never so strongly evident.

Nothing is the same anymore, we are in a new world, surrounded by thick fog. What used to be important is now secondary, tomorrow is unpredictable, but it seems that what is a disaster for humans has shown to be enjoyed by nature. With the pandemic, living in “quarantine”, man has not had the chance, or the conditions, to assault nature as much as it used to be!
The arrogance of having the power to control everything must stay in the past, in that far away month of January 2020.
The fact is that we are all playing hide and seek with “the bug”.
Sorry, not all of us, there are those that state that “the bug” is not as bad as everyone says and provide real “bug sheltering”. And then, they kindly distribute the litters, even if no one wants it, or asked for it.

Liberty? Democracy? No! The destructive dictatorship of voluntary ignorance.
On the 11th of January 2022 Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe said:
“Fifty of the 53 countries in Europe and central Asia have now reported cases of Omicron. It is quickly becoming the dominant variant in western Europe, at this rate, more than 50% of the population in the Region will be infected with Omicron in the next 6–8 weeks. Data collated in recent weeks confirms that Omicron is highly transmissible as it adheres to human cells more easily and it can infect even those who have been previously infected or vaccinated.”

Dr. Kluge also reiterates that the currently approved vaccines do continue to provide good protection against severe disease and death, including for Omicron.
Due to the unprecedented scale of transmission, COVID-19 hospitalisations are now rising and challenging health systems, in many countries where Omicron has spread at speed and threatens to overwhelm in many more and, once again, the greatest burden of responding to this pandemic is being carried by the health care staff.
And the WHO Regional Director for Europe finalises by saying that:

“The pandemic stabilisers that have guided our response in recent months, are as relevant for tackling Delta or Omicron today as they have ever been. These remain our mantra: 1. vaccination, 2. third doses or boosters, 3. increased mask use, 4. ventilation of closed spaces.”
We are in a war with “the bug” that we cannot see, but not only, also with the humans that do not understand what is going on around them, or do not want to understand. The truth is that no army has ever won a war by denying the existence of the enemy… and by refusing to use the available necessary defensive arms.
This “bug thing” could not be more unexpected, inappropriate, desperate, it has destroyed our individual and collective equilibrium.
Nobody knows when the time will come for this time that has happened to us to pass by…
What used to seem and be considered as important, turned secondary and, truly, for many things, that is what it should have been a reality, from long before.
One thing we know, with no margin for doubt! When this time will end it will be after the end of many lives, many, many lives that will have no more time for anything else.
The Covid health problems and deaths must not mask and make people forget about the “usual” health problems that were not wiped from the face of the earth. We are still having respiratory, heart and cerebrovascular diseases, malignant tumors and all the long list of already known infectious diseases. They are all still here, we must not forget this reality.
The title I would like to use for the first article in 2022 would be “New Year New Life” but it is not yet a new life, it is an interval, a standby period, waiting for the future.

We, ordinary people, are very upset, feeling there is not much we can do. Some even think that the best is not to do anything, but this is a silly, irrational error.
I feel like saying… “Yes, we can”! We can go on living! In a careful, rational way.

Best healthy wishes,
Dra. Maria Alice Pestana Serrano e Silva
Consultant in General and Family Medicine
General Manager/Medical Director – Luzdoc International Medical Service