Coronavirus, Remember, 21.

21. "THE TIGRESSES OF LOVE" Friday April 10, 2020. At the New York Zoo live two Love tigresses (the river!), Named Nadia and Azul. Along with three African lions they show alarming symptoms - fever and dry cough. Examinations taken, felines turn out to have Covid 19 - a mild form of the virus. They had contracted it from contact with an asymptomatic healer at the zoo. This is one of the very rare cases of human-to-animal contamination. At the end of March in Belgium, a cat was infected by its master, and in Hong Kong, two dogs. While humans appear to be able to transmit the coronavirus to their pets, conversely, we have no evidence that pets play a role in transmission to humans. Two months ago, China declared 44,670 cases and lamented 1,115 dead, including 1,068 in Hubei province (whose capital is Wuhan, where the virus "came out" from). In Europe and the United States, cases were counted in one or two digits - 13 in the United States, 16 in Germany, 11 in France, 3 in Italy, 2 in Spain. Entire continents were spared: South America and Africa. Today, two months later, when the United States and Europe are literally invaded by the virus, overtaking China which seems to have reached 82,000 cases and remained, until fifteen days ago, at the top of the list of the most more infected - it is now distanced by the United States (451,491), Spain (152,446), Italy (143,626), Germany (115,523) and France (86,334) -, the "spared" continents are facing the tidal wave of the virus while the most infected countries note a slowdown in the epidemic - the number of cured patients leaving hospitals is greater than the number of patients in intensive care. We can say that Europe is starting to curb the pandemic. At what price ? At the cost of rich nations: the confinement of the entire population for a month, at the cost of 2 to 3% of GDP per month. The “stalling” of the economy's reactor - 6.9 million short-time workers, 628,000 companies involved in France. The redistribution by planes, helicopters, military ships, medical tgv of supernumerary patients (more than 500 to date). A respirator costs 4,500 to 32,000 euros. A day of resuscitation costs 3,189 euros. Europe has voted a bailout package worth 500 billion euros, immediately available, plus a stimulus fund to come. However my Cape Verdean friend Magda told me that in Cape Verde: "todo o mundo esta com o coraçao na boca", everyone has "their heart stuck in their mouths", "todos aterrorisados com essa situaçao", "all terrorized by this situation ”, because“ nao temos condiçoes pa lidar com uma coisa desta ”,“ we do not have the means to fight against something like that… ” Yes ... the giant who was advancing in an indiscriminate way on the whole planet, with his heavy tread (coronavirus diary 1), found on his way rich nations, able to fight against him - he is now attacking the most deprived nations, the one where you go out in the morning to earn the money for the evening catchoupa, and where despite the confinement and the state of emergency, the tin barracks communicate from open partitions to open partitions ... ideal circumstances for the virus. While the great helmsman Christine Lagarde controls the neutralization of the engine of the economy and has already put his hand on the restart lever, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where the case fatality rate of the virus is 6, 75, we are looking for land to dig mass graves and in Guayaquil in Ecuador (17 million inhabitants), where 2/3 of the cases and deaths are concentrated, the association of cardboard manufacturers has offered 1000 cardboard coffins . Meanwhile, the New York Times has its moving column “Those We've Lost to the Coronavirus” on the front page, a portrait gallery of those who have left us, with a clean cut in the world of jazz musicians. , Ellis Marsalis, pianist and chief of the Marsalis clan, Wallace Roney, trumpeter, Mike Longo pianist, Joe Diffie folk singer, John Pizzarelli, guitarist, Manu Dibango, sax… A word of advice: if tears come to you, with the urge to cry, listen to "Swinging at the Haven" by Ellis Marsalis ...