Lockdowns
I'm currently stuck in Athens, Greece and will probably ride things out here as most of the world is currently on lockdown.
I've been here for almost 5 weeks now and the past 2 weeks I've been mainly staying in my AirBnB and only go out to buy groceries. The country went on partial lockdown on March 14 where gathering of up to 10 people was still allowed and restaurants/cafes can be open only for take-outs. Then on March 23, it changed to a full lockdown where only essential businesses such as supermarkets, pharmacies, and banks can remain open. People are allowed to be outside only for certain things such as buying groceries or to excercise and you must have a note with you with the reason why you're out. It's supposed to end after 2 weeks (April 6) but will likely be extended. This is pretty much the situation in most of Europe and many other countries around the world right now because of the coronavirus.
I'm actually handling this pretty well so far and while I miss being able to take long walks, go to the park, and work from coffee shops, it hasn't been too bad. I'm not going crazy yet. It probably helps that I'm an introvert to begin with. It reminds me of those days in my early teens where I would basically lock myself at home for weeks during the summer holiday just playing videogames and surfing the web.
People here in Athens seem to be following the rules pretty well. The few times I had to go out to buy groceries, the few people on the street were keeping their distance and I didn't see more than two people walking together. The line outside the supermarket was fairly short and I didn't see any panic buying. Plenty of stock of everything (yes, you can get toilet paper!).
I normally don't follow the news but these past few weeks, and especially the last 2 weeks, I've been constantly checking Twitter, Reddit, and watching BBC News. It's definitely very distracting from getting work done and I bet many people are dealing with the same. It feels like things could change very quickly that can affect everyone. New laws could get passed. The market could crash or recover. New discoveries about the virus. In most cases, though, there's probably no action that I can take myself that would change anything so I'm trying to now limit my news consumption and focus on getting stuff done instead.
I really do hope things get better soon as the economic impact of a long-term lockdown could take a very long time to recover from. It might even be possible that shutting down the economy for a long period of time could kill more people in the long run than the virus itself as others have argued. I'm not against the lockdown at all and I actually agree it's necessary given that we don't have enough data how bad things really are due to lack of testing and we're still learning more about this virus.
However, I'm not so sure if a lockdown of more than a month is sustainable. Most people probably don't have the money to support themselves for more than a month without income. Also, most governments don't have the ability to print unlimited money to help their citizens. The US is in a unique position as the US dollar is the world's reserve currency. I'm actually wondering how countries like Ecuador that use the US dollar as the official currency will deal with it (surely they can't print US dollars). The poor will be hit the hardest here.
Things may never be the same again, but I'm hopeful it won't be as bad as some have predicted. As more people get tested and testing methods get better, then we'll have more data that should hopefully help us contain the coronavirus more effectively without having to resort to an extended full lockdown.
Tags: coronavirus