Please call upon that great Italian Saint, Saint Rocco, to bring a quick end to the Coronavirus pandemic.
My young cousin, Nicola Giacomelli, in Livorno who has a toddler messengered me the following yesterday about Livorno:
Hi Allan! Thank you! Yes, the city is completely closed and now there is a some fear. The city is spooky, shops all closed and no one around. We work from home instead of going to the office. We are all fine for now. The biggest problem is for hospitals because being very contagious if we get sick at the same time there will be no place for everyone in hospitals! The concern is greatest for the elderly! How's it going with you? Everything good?
And from a family friend in Ardenza, slightly south of Livorno, Fabrizio Agostinelli:
Bars, restaurants, pubs are closed. You can only go out with a self-certification which says where we have to go. We hope to get out of it soon. Thanks Father Allan.
3 comments:
Bee here:
PBS was rerunning a documentary made in 1998 about the Spanish Flu (American Experience: Influenza 1918. You can watch it online.) It's a little light on detail, but explains how in the worst hit areas they did close stores, churches and other gathering places. So this is not an unusual reaction to an epidemic.
God bless.
Bee
Social isolation saves lives.
In the Spanish flu epidemic, Philadelphia officials downplayed the dangers and took little or no action when the first cases were reported there on September 17, 1918. At it's worst, that city saw death rates of over 250 people per 100,000.
St. Louis, on the other hand, had its first case on October 5th. Two days later officials took swift, strong action to restrict person to person contact. As a result, St. Louis had a death rate of just over 50 people per 100,000.
Stay home. If you MUST go out, keep 6 feet away from ALL folks. Wash you hands often, get plenty of rest.
May I add as a pretty Traditional guy that closing a Church in a time of unknown disease is a good idea. The break with superstition is to know why you do things. As we become more confident in how to deal with this disease through behaviour we can model it in Mass for all. Just like we should our Liturgy.
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