Letter from Covid19 Land

Alice Mulasso

The following was posted from Italy on the GASi Forum on 12th March 2020:

Dear Members,

I feel the need to name and share openly what we are experiencing, and what many other countries are experiencing, maybe at a different stage of the process. I tried to say something in a couple of different threads, but I felt like a voice in the desert and I do understand it, because one aspect of the social collective situation that the spreading of Coronavirus and COVID19 is generating, is a sort of unreal feeling, of surreal, a tendency to minimise and to keep out, to deny, not only individually, but collectively. One month ago many of us would try to keep calm thinking that doctors, scientists and our politicians were exaggerating, after all “death rate for seasonal flue is much higher”, after all “people who are dying are old people already affected by chronic diseases”, after all “in young people it is but a normal light flue”, after all “it might be a strategy to trigger fear and anxiety”, after all “we are not China” , after all  after all after all …. one after all after the other reality imposed itself. The first worrying measure:  the closure of schools, universities, training institutes, theatres, cinemas, ….. ?????  What is going on? Maybe it is more serious than we have thought!

mmmm no, they said next week everything will go back to normal…. What an exaggeration! But it wasn’t an exaggeration, on the other hand it was not enough!

Schools are still closed, so are theatres, cinemas, gyms…. and from today everything is closed for the next 15 days except pharmacies, food stores, transportation but with fewer runs, laundries, funeral parlours, for the first time in our history, outside of  a war situation.

Well, schools and universities are not really closed, because they started programs of on line lessons, homework, tests, etc…, so they are functioning pretty well.  Those who can do it have   implemented smart work, we are trying to implement on line psychotherapy form one day to the other, very challenging.

The issue at stake, but it took over a month to understand it for most of us, is that this virus is very aggressive and fast spreading, very contagious, and there are not vaccines nor remedy so far. The problem is when complications arrive, mainly pneumonia, viral pneumonia, and difficulties to breathe, so affected people need intensive ward  or reanimation ward care, to be helped to breathe by intubation. And the wards have limited capacity, so all the measures and restrictions decided by the government decrees aim at slowing down the spreading of the virus so that hospitals can take in new cases and offer proper assistance. In some hospitals this is becoming increasingly difficult.

The feeling is of something that is changing our lifestyle, rhythm, habits, way of thinking. There is a shift from feeling safe enough in this part of the world, to experiencing how unpredictability  and uncertainty are truly part of life, not safety and control; feelings of vulnerability, both individual and social, of fragility, of, quoting Ungaretti, feeling “si sta come d’autunno sugli alberi le foglie”, “feeling as in autumn the leaves on the trees” (tremendous translation, sorry, better to google it!!) . Many countries and peoples know it, it was more hidden for us, left apart, denied.

But there is a good side of it, rediscovering the worth of cooperation, how the best way to cope with this situation is to cooperate as a community, taking responsibility as citizens and increasing awareness of those behaviours that contribute, if widespread,  to lower the risk of spreading of the virus. So we are now closed in our homes – lucky to have a home-! With our families or in loneliness, it depends of course. Life slowed down, hectic rhythms faded away, except for all those thousands of professionals – doctors, GP, nurses, etc…. – working in hospitals under a great strain.

Of course everything has been cancelled: workshops, congresses, sport competitions – even soccer, can you imagine Italy WITHOUT FOOTBALL???  maybe a bit like UK without cricket???? – it is not possible to travel not even from one town to the other – with some  exceptions of corset but it is required to demonstrate with the proper papers. The experience of freedom of movement has changed. But most people understand. In my limited experience people – patients , citizens,- respond with relief when informed that an event has been suspended, that the therapy can be on line, etc…

I, we, are learning day by day by this experience, a social trauma that, I hope, will make us understand the complexity of being connected and of globalization.  Many levels of analysis and thought are involved: health, economy, politics, decision making, values, power issues… The first and most struck regions in Italy have been the most wealthy and economically developed, Veneto and Lombardia. What does it mean I can’t tell, more questions then answers at the moment.

A big  challenge is to find spaces of sharing and dialogue in a moment when every kind of grouping is forbidden, and feared. So the forum could be one.

We are also considering experiencing SD on line!

Suggestions? Experiences to share? Please, very welcome!

I send you all a no-viral hug

Alice Mulasso
alice.mulasso@icloud.com