Corona in Russia

RUSSIAN REACTION TO CORONAVIRUS

By Stephen Wilson

 

            Schools, work and planned public events are ceasing  as the Russian state extends wider quarantine measures to almost all areas of life.

 

           "Have you washed your hands? I mean really washed your hands not just for a few seconds as you usually do but at least 40 seconds. If you wash your hands for 40 to 60 seconds everything will be okay," said a colleague to me after she noticed I had arrived in her kitchen. I felt like a scolded pupil in school again. But I recall that when I was training to be a psychiatric nurse over 30 years ago our instructor taught us that many adults don't really wash their hands in the right way, but do it too casually and briefly. When on Monday 16th March I was travelling on the Moscow

underground I was handed a newspaper headlines warning: "We correctly wash our hands, clean our smartphones and safely become healthy".

           When I entered the the German center in Moscow I dropped into the staff table kitchen and woe and behold, was a poster, issued by the World Health Organisation with eleven illustrated pictures on how to meticulously wash and wipe you hands, the amount of soap and different motions. The same morning I received two messages from students saying their lessons had to be cancelled because of quarantine measures. I was beginning to feel a little apprehensive. When I stepped into the office students told me that they had been advised not to shake hands. They joked about this.

           But all kinds of advice is being given such as 'Don't shake hands, Don't kiss' and 'Only pay by credit card'. Although sending your children to school is largely optional some schools have already closed. Children are staying at home and being sent a lot of homework and doing lessons on-line. When some of my private school children were told "You don't have to go to school tomorrow " I have never seen such faces beaming with joy. An 11-year-old girl told me, "It is great. No school tomorrow". Her father was not so keen. When she said to her father, "I don't have school tomorrow" he answered an ambiguous "probably not". This euphoria has been brief as teachers send students at home a lot of homework and tasks. This is not quite a holiday from school.

 

           An adult student told me he had been forced to cancel a holiday to Italy and business trips abroad. They are also doing much more work from home.

           But I can see a great deal of disappointment and we are both asking, 'When will normality return to Russia and Europe. Are people overreacting to this crisis?

 

           I came across a view from one Russian English Teacher, Natasha, that "Unlike in Europe or America, we in Russia are not over-reacting or becoming hysterical.

           We have the proper response. Certainly the number of reported cases of the virus may well be intentionally understated {less than 100} and the spread of the virus has been understated. But strong measures are being implemented. Anyone who has returned from abroad must remain indoors for two weeks. And the people who happen to share the same accommodation are also obliged to follow suit. The borders to most countries have practically been closed. Chinese students are being subject to unwanted attention and many people are avoiding them. The idea that Russians may be adopting a calmer approach than those Europeans is a flattering conceit. It is at least questionable. Everywhere I go in Moscow I overhear the same topic being spoken.

 

          "This is hysterical overreaction. The World has gone mad. Russia had been suffering from an epidemic of flu yet the government did not react. People are dying from car accidents all the time yet there is no such response," says my wife Svetlana. She is sick and tired of hearing about the topic. But she has a point. Far more women are being beaten to death by men {12,000} a year. This figure far exceeds the number of people who have died from this virus in Russia. Yet instead of taking urgent measures to protect women from violence the Government passed a law in 2017

decriminalizing the domestic  violence of first time offenders! It was like passing a law to incite violence! As a result, domestic cases of violence against women shot up. We seem to have huge double standards here.  Infecting some one by accident with coronavirus seems to many  far more heinous than beating a woman to death.

 

           There are rumors that Moscow may take drastic steps such as imposing a curfew and shutting all services down. Nobody would be able to leave their homes and the underground would be closed down. However, politicians and officials said there were no such plans to close down the underground.  So far, it is possible to drop into supermarkets and purchase toilet paper and food. The shelves are not empty and there are no signs of the rushed panic to buy up supplies as in London and Paris. In the underground you notice more passengers wearing face masks, but they seem to stand out as a conspicuous minority. Although people are not in a state of panic a tense and apprehensive mood pervades the city. This is largely because people are in the dark as to what happens next and for how long!