Pandemic
I went shopping today, in the early morning as is my habit. I hate shops, shopping and crowds, so I like to get in there as early as possible, get it all over and done with quick smart, and get out as fast as I can. That’s the ritual, once a week on the Saturday morning. In a considerable break with tradition, there were eight people lining up already, waiting in front of the closed roller doors. I was number nine. While I sat down and waited for five minutes or so another seven people turned up, one of them wearing a virus-proof face-mask. Normally there might be one or two people in the first fifteen minutes of the shop’s opening. To see such a group gathered is highly unusual. People are scared out of their wits by the Corona virus pandemic. And it’s understandable. Overnight in Italy, epicentre of the pandemic, 627 people have died. Yesterday their thirteenth doctor died of the disease. The army has been called in to keep order in the streets and keep people indoors, and ...