Geneva, Friday 1 May 2020

A cold damp morning. I cycled into town; lots of people about given the weather. Shops are re-opening. I found myself in Place Bourg de Four; right in the middle of the old town. I had to say hello to “Clementine,” a bronze sculpture by Heinz Schwarz. 

Clementine is exquisite. She is sad, delicate and beautiful in her budding adolescence. She stands fully and unashamedly naked. Schwartz’s masterpiece has become an international symbol of solidarity for women and girls, especially those trafficked or forced into prostitution. Outside the time of lockdown, there would be floral tributes strewn at her feet.

It is a shopping day. I was speaking to a friend by phone. I said that I hoped it wouldn’t be long before we no longer needed to rinse the groceries under a cold shower. He couldn’t believe I’d been doing this throughout the lockdown.

I thought it was kinda normal if one was concerned about a bug doing the rounds. That’s what we used to do “out there” on top of the standard “clean it, boil it or leave it.” I read somewhere that it is not a disinfectant measure (obviously) and may not reduce your chance of picking up the coronavirus; but, given that we talking about droplet spread, it can reduce the viral load ingested and so, theoretically, reduce the impact of the infection if you get it. Maybe one day soon, the stats will be there to tell me whether this is a valid precaution or not. Now, talking of stats….

I am fascinated by the evolution of how pertinent epidemiology stats are presented to the general public. Six weeks ago, the focus was on total cases and deaths per country. There was talk of us climbing to the epidemic peak and the need to “flatten the curve.” Now there are explanations of the R value that indicates how contagious the disease was and is now with lockdown measures. (In the beginning this value was around three meaning for every infected person, the virus would be passed on to three others. Effective lockdown measures aimed to and did pull this number to less than one where it has to stay.) There are also concerted attempts to establish the mortality associated with COVID-19 by comparing countries differing mortality rates. If this is not possible for a given country, it can be estimated by calculating the “excess mortality” within a population over the period in question. From what I can see on-line, we are likely to find that the mortality associated with the disease is between 2% and 4%. This pursuit of such figures is not an academic exercise. The more accurate our understanding of the R values and the factors behind the differing mortality rates, the better equipped governments will be to make the important decisions about loosening lockdown measures. 

I am fascinated also – and horrified in equal measure – by President Trump’s unceasing accusations against China that the pandemic is the result of a leak – accidental or intentional – from a laboratory in Wuhan. He uses increasingly inflammatory language. His own intelligence agencies don’t believe this and have stated that the virus is most likely of natural origin. The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, as politically deft as he is wise, has let us all know with well chosen words just how irresponsible it is to foment this spat at precisely the time that powerful nations should be leading the world in a coordinated response to the pandemic. Go, Toni!

Surgeon: “Well, I’ve got some good news and some bad news.” Patient: OK, Doc! Give me the bad news first.” Surgeon: “We’re going to have to amputate both your legs.” Patient: “Oh no! What’s the good news then?” Surgeon: “You see that gorgeous nurse over there…. I’ve got a date with her on Friday!”

Geneva, Thursday 30 April 2020

We had a quiz the other evening via zoom. It was us against two locked down nephews aged 10 and 13 years in the UK. We were beaten by unfair tactics. Each team had to come up with ten questions. We focused on wholesome subjects with educational merit such as: Who invented the steam engine? (“James Watt” they cried.) and: How many times does the International Space Station orbit Earth in a day? (“Sixteen!” they cried.) With them having answered nine of our ten questions correctly and us being reluctantly impressed, they put theirs to us. On which planet was Luke Skywalker born? (… Duuurh!) How many Star Wars spacecraft are made by Lego? (…… Uuuurmh!) Youngsters these days!

Heavy rain has meant that we have had to move the putting mat indoors.

My wife wins on the first play-off hole. The running total: me -19, she – 10.

Yesterday evening there was a loud bang in the kitchen. We ran through to find that Boris the sourdough starter had blown the lid off his jar; small tid-bits of sourdough were sprayed onto the wall and work surface. By quite some coincidence, his namesake’s son was born yesterday. Maybe this augured well for we made a couple of delicious small loaves from his discard today.

You’ll spot my temporary desk. I have been working on a different image-making project. I’m not sure if it’s a painting or a collage. Maybe it’s a collage of bits of my lockdown paintings. 

You may recognise bits of “Pigeon Love” from Day 23 of the Diary. This got chopped into squares and so we have “Pigeon Love Deconstructed coz The Boys Are Back in Town and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” 

South Korea and New Zealand have both reported zero new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. These hard won achievements will not be relinquished easily. Countries that have got on top of the pandemic cannot be far from declaring a ban on all visitors until a vaccine is widely available. We were hoping to reschedule our cancelled New Zealand holiday for December.

Hoping the readers of this Diary are well, safe and surviving the lockdown in good spirits.

Geneva, Wednesday 29 April 2020

People are still clapping enthusiastically at 21.00 every evening here in Geneva. Whilst this remains a show of thanks to those who have continued working throughout the lockdown, there is now definitely a different tone. We have whistling and singing; it’s more celebratory. The end of lockdown is in sight even though we are now well aware that addressing this pandemic involves a long haul. In Europe at least, this sentiment permeates; it’s government driven. Maybe we should spare more than a thought for the developing world. People in poorer countries, having to travel and unable to distance themselves from others even where they live, are facing a COVID-19 catastrophe; as a result, they are most likely to be the source of a resurgence of the disease elsewhere. For example, both India and Egypt are still seeing a steady increase in the number of cases of COVID-19 per day; they have yet to reach the peak. It is quite possible we will never know the full extent of the impact in countries with little capacity for testing and data gathering as a result of poor public health infrastructure. It is precisely in these countries, as recently reported in the Economist, that the mortality from COVID-19 is likely to be massively underestimated. It is sadly no surprise that this virus’s capacity includes showing us just how easily the world divides into the haves and the have-nots.

I am reminded of a trip I made to Egypt in early 2012 just after the 2011 “Arab spring” uprising. My objective was to tap into the extraordinary experience of the Doctors of Tahrir Square; an intrepid band of medics who had provided impartial first aid throughout the political crisis. It was truly admirable what they had achieved. They became a symbol of a fairer Egypt of the future. I met some of them one evening in a small cafe down a darkened Cairo backstreet. I asked them to give me their three top tips for other health-care workers caught up in such events. First, they said, you have to be visible; second, everyone must know that you are impartial (make contact with local radio stations;) third, always set up a first aid post with a wall behind you. I hope my brave Cairo colleagues are coping with the COVID-19 emergency. It’ll be a tough one for them. On my way out of Cairo, I spotted this sculpture by Smaban Abbas at the airport; it totally summed up my experience there.

Three nights ago, I opened our blog to start writing this Diary. We’d been hacked! The titles of a number of articles appeared in Russian letters. The hack was dealt with quickly and the site seems not to have suffered as a result. My friends in IT tell me that hackers the world over are taking advantage of the disruption to systems caused by people changing their work place from office to home. We can add hacking to the crimes that have flourished as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I took this photo last year on a road that crosses the fens in Eastern England, near King’s Lynn. It was about 7.30 in the morning. It’ll be a long time before we see the skies full of jet streams like this. Imagine all that fuel not being burnt these days. 

This got me thinking. What are the links between the lockdown, less fuel use, less air pollution, carbon dioxide levels and global warming? I had a bit of a look around on-line. There are, as you can imagine, many expert opinions. Here’s a non-expert summary. Because of the lockdown, air travel is down by about 75% and coal burning is down 20%. However, even if this were to remain the case until the end of the year, the total carbon dioxide emissions for 2020 would drop by only 5%. This will make virtually no difference to the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and certainly won’t change our course towards a warmer planet. Then there are numerous reports of the lockdown leading to much reduced air pollution in many cities and over whole industrialised areas. There are two sides to this. Carbon dioxide is obviously one of the many atmospheric pollutants that accompanies the burning of fossil fuels; however, particulate air pollution (smoke) can, apparently, block the sun’s rays from reaching the surface of the planet. The cleaner the air, the more directly the earth’s surface is heated by sun. This leads to greater evaporation from oceans and so greater precipitation. Seems we can’t win. I also read that 2020 is already lining up to be the hottest year ever. Surely… no… this can’t be due to a virus, can it?

I see that Rory McIlroy, the current world number one golfer has offered to sell a signed pair of his new Nike shoes. I wonder how much they’ll go for. I was working in Thailand some years ago and needed some golf shoes. I went into a shop that sold convincing fake Rolex watches for $10 and Nike trainers for $5. By chance they had a pair of “Adidas” golf shoes for $4 that had been signed with a big flourish of a signature beginning with an “S.” Sam Snead? Seve Ballesteros? Sergio Garcia? I looked closely…. “Saint Andrew”!!!