First It Was The Strike, Now Virus Fears Are Keeping Me Put

Paris is always a feast for the eyes, but recently the strike had limited my getting around to enjoy all of its beauty as I usually like to do.  Now it is fears of a virus.

I finally was able to zoom out of my arrondissement last week when the metro was running almost back to normal.

A simple trip up to Odeon to buy Nespresso capsules and check on sales at Uniglo in the renovated Marché Saint Germain was my first trip outside my arrondissement since early December!

It was dark by the time I stepped off the stairs of the metro with a brisk cold wind slapping me in the face, yet I felt like celebrating!

The Christmas lights were still on and there was a jazz band playing across from the Deux Magots café.  It was exhilarating to see the whole view,  almost like it was the first time!

Since early December lines of the metro including line 4, which runs in front of my place have been opened only 3 hours in the am and 3 hours in the pm. I wasn’t about to sardine myself unnecessarily.

Fortunately, my arrondissement does not lack in any abundance of shops, marchés, restaurants, supermarkets, cinemas and parks.

Thanks to the strike, I even discovered some new shops, like the recently opened Russian food store nearby to buy toasted Kasha and found frozen cranberries with a better taste than the ones imported from the US!

We even have a fabulous foodie street, Rue Daguerre, chock full with some great food shops from cheese, superb seafood, foie gras, greengrocers, honey, foreign foods, and butchers with the most famous one of Paris just around the corner.

February is usually the coldest month of the year, and public transport can be a petri dish for all sorts of viral particles wafting about.

Now that there are three confirmed cases of the Wuhanese coronavirus in Paris and one in Bordeaux,  we all have every reason here to be cautious.  Three are Chinese ex-pats who recently travelled to Wuhan and the most recent is an 80-year Chinese tourist.

Since Paris is the most sought out city in the world to visit and thousands of Chinese tourists are here at any given time, I will not be surprised if new cases surface.

Paris is the port of entry of the majority of tourists from all over the world, so I presume the Bordeaux case came through here as well and probably travelled to Bordeaux by the TGV train.

I can only hope that all the people with whom these unfortunate individuals came into contact have been well scrutinised and that they too are being followed.

It is not the ones already hospitalised that raises my fears, who are in isolation, but all the others that have been exposed and might be shedding this serious virus before showing any symptoms themselves.

I haven’t seen any masks being worn on the street but did notice one on an Asian lady riding the bus.  Again, this rarely seen occurrence of donning a mask has been witnessed only on Asians tourists.

I was disappointed in the French minister of health in initially presenting the whole situation very nonchalantly early last week, saying that there was little chance of France having any cases of the Wuhan viral pneumonia.

I was astounded by her lack of insight in that flights were still arriving from Wuhan and other metropolitan Chineses cities!

Only two days later she had to eat her words when the three cases were confirmed.  Bottom line,  don’t look to your ministers of health or any politician to keep you and your family safe.

Her latest gaffe was to downplay using a surgical mask, which may not keep out all the microscopic viral particles, nor protect eyes but does protect ports of entry of the mouth and nostrils from flash droplets spewing from contaminated coughs and minimises placing fingers in the area.

Lancet, the British medical journal recently published an interesting read that analysed the contagion factors of a Chinese family visiting relatives in Wuhan.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30154-9/fulltext

Of those followed, only a little girl aged 7, escaped coming down with the virus, thought to be because she was most compliant with wearing a mask.

Although the article directly addresses the Wuhanese virus, it demonstrates the blueprint of contagion that happens when any family member is facing cold or flu viruses.

The majority of the common cold and respiratory infections are from the family of coronaviruses and they have tremendous ability to mutate quickly and jump from animals to humans as did he Sars-CoV and Mers-CoV, and now the Wunan 2019-nCoV.

I was telling a friend that I have some anticipatory anxiety of getting sick each time February rolls around.   Why? It was February the 10th, 2011 that I ended up with viral pneumonia.

This is not any different than what a panic patient feels who becomes sensitized after having a panic attack somewhere and develops anticipatory anxiety and avoidance behaviour, some of the classical diagnostic symptoms of a panic disorder, also seen in PTSD.

I have written about my February blues before and since my son’s death anniversary falls in February, I plan a getaway, all the more reason to stay virus-free If I can.

I didn’t go to the Thermalies spa salon held this past weekend at the Louvre Carousel, which I generally enjoy going, out of concern of being in crowds either on transport or carousing the aisles.

Besides being selective in where I want to risk possible exposure, I focus on my own personal lifestyle habits.  Once you have had pneumonia, your risk of having it again does increase, unfortunately.

What I can do, is keep up my routines of healthy eating, exercising and immune-enhancing supplements of Selenium, Zinc and of course 500 to 1000 mg of daily Vitamine C!

I have no intentions of living in a bubble, but there are plenty of other ordinary bad viral infections running around in February besides Wuhan,  that I wouldn’t want either.

Laying low is only a temporary measure and of course, flying to my getaway, planned before the recent virus fears, will increase again exposure risks.

The strike days aren’t finished either, with the firemen’s turn soon to be demonstrating.  There will definitely be more limited metro access on those days.

France is bringing in a planeload of French citizens who were residing in Wuhan this Thursday.  All will have to be quarantined for at least 14 days.

The Lancet article demonstrated approximately 6 to 7 days of incubation time where viral shedding can occur in asymptomatic patients.   This is the most frightening aspect about the risks of contagion.

Although I really miss going around to my usual venues in other arrondissements that I am in the habit of doing, it is more of a temporary nuisance.

Whether or not this worldwide threating virus can be successfully contained is yet unknown. Frankly, I would much rather put up with the temporary inconvenience of limited public transport from a strike than being constantly vigilant and stressed with fears of viral contagion!