Isolation

An friend of mine, I call him Ralf here, gets fever, dry cough, at times chills. The typical symptoms.
As expected: SARS-CoV-2 positive.

That was two weeks ago. My friend is doing fine now. He has no more symptoms.
Ralf’s wife and his two children, one of them an infant, did not get any symptoms, but were tested too. Result: negative.
“That my family did not catch the disease from me seems not really possible, if one is to believe the epidemiologists and their descriptions of the infectivity of Corona,” Ralf wonders.

Another friend of mine, here called Klaus, had already been tested Corona-positive about four weeks ago. Because he felt healthy and wanted to end his quarantine, he had himself tested for the second time a few days ago – again positive, so still. This is also atypical, because it does not fit the alleged maximum duration of 14 days during which infected persons remain contagious.

I know this story is complicated enough, but it goes even further: Klaus knows on which evening he got infected. A colleague of his got infected at the same event, probably from the same person. Four weeks ago, this colleague developed mild symptoms which at first seemed to go away, but which suddenly worsened to such an extent that an emergency hospitalisation became necessary. He had previously infected his father. Both are now in intensive care at the same time. The father is given artificial respiration through a tracheotomy. The condition of both is said to be critical.

The microscopic enemy is getting closer.

When did I first think that the new corona virus could affect me? Probably as early as December 2019, but the thought remained nebulous at the time – even as the bad news from China began to accumulate. Then the horrible news from Italy came thick and fast. I know people who were affected and heard about their horror experiences. Again the question: What does this have to do with me? The answer: unclear.

A dispute has arisen between the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the Federal Association of German Pathologists. The RKI had advised against autopsies of so-called corona deaths. The Pathologists vehemently objected. “From the autopsies” of the dead “we can learn how to treat the living better. For this we need to know: What was essentially responsible for the death? We’re talking about Covid-19 deaths, and that’s not entirely wrong. But Covid may be bringing forward a death that’s already looming for other reasons.”
The current practice for determining the cause of death is very simple: if a person is corona-positive and dies, he is considered a Covid death. Whatever he actually died of.

What is more dangerous, I too asked myself just a week ago, Covid-19 or the media excitement about it? I do not know the answer today, except that both are evidently very unhealthy. This can be seen in the following two charts (The Economist, April 4th – 10th, page 73):

Mortality rate in the Madrid area in the first quarter of 2020. Source: “The Economist”, 4. – 10. April, Seite 73

Here the rate for the same period in a small town in the Bergamo region:

Mortality rate in the small northern Italian town of Nembro in the first quarter of 2020. Source: “The Economist”, 4. – 10. April, Seite 73

The first chart shows the mortality rate in the greater Madrid area for the first quarter of this year. The second chart shows the mortality rate for the same period in a small town in the region of Bergamo in northern Italy. The black line shows the expected mortality rate for 2020 – calculated from the average deaths of the previous years in the period from the beginning of the year to the end of March. The actual deaths are shown as a light pink curve. This curve runs sometimes above and sometimes below the expected mortality rate, but always close to it. Of course there are deviations, death doesn’t hold up to expectations.

This changes with the arrival of Corona. Within a few days the death rate in the Madrid area triples (including Covid-19 cases, dark pink). In the small Italian town of Nembro it multiplies even more. Around 11,500 inhabitants – struck by lightning as if out of the blue.

My life is changing rapidly at the moment. But not for the worse. On the contrary, and as strange as it sounds: I’m enjoying my days in a calmed Berlin. In the meantime people are even smiling more. Do they and I lack imagination to anticipate the upcoming misery? Apparently.
Easter Sunday blessed Berlin with bright sunshine and summery 24 degrees. I went to the Tempelhofer Feld to do some sports, keeping my distance to other visitors. The majority behaved as if there was no reason to worry. People sunbathed close to each other. Are they possibly right with this clueless attitude?

What you can’t see, hear, smell, taste or touch seems abstract. Until you suddenly can. And then you’re out of your mind.

“That’s the way I feel now“, a friend wrote me from New York.

What should I answer him from afar? Is there anything I can say to calm him down?
That this is a fateful turn of events? That the world is reconsidering now? That change always comes with a price? That one should not rebel against the possibility of one’s own death? That I’m not afraid of death? That it is a blessing to be part of overdue change and that spring 2020 marks the beginning of that change? That I enjoy every day of it? That I experience these days more intensely and consciously than the months before? That I feel in harmony with myself as for how long not?

I finally told him all this and more on the phone. I heard him crying on the other end. And felt miserable.

What do the illustrated graphics say about Covid-19? Well, not that the disease is as harmless as many would like. Nor does it mean that you can go back to business as usual as if nothing had happened. That’s a good thing. And hopefully it will stay that way, even if it turns out that it was mainly the viral excitement that was responsible for the bottleneck situations in the hospitals and high mortality rates as a result.

Stay healthy!

Yours – Otmar Jenner

P.S. Dear readers, English is not my mother tongue. If you find striking mistakes in the wording, please let me know (oj@otmarjenner.de).

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We smile at each other from a distance. Looking at one another while our bodies have to avoid each other at a distance.When did I last shake hands with someone? I try to remember, but I can’t.
On these days of new and still unfamiliar distance, most people also avoid eye contact. They move in strange serpentines so as not to offend other passers-by. To the lowered glances, ears are often closed as well. The spacial separation is amplified by an acoustic one. Headphones emphasize the hermetic inner space for many. A casual conversation could be infectious. Our life in the new zones of deliberately protected sterility. Our life in the séparée of an increasingly rigorously partitioned and publicly defended individual sphere. A life as if behind a protective screen. It is easy to imagine the protective clothing of medical emergency workers.

A blossom that folds and closes in a paradoxical impulse back to the bud. Maybe it got too much sun.

If humanity were a child, one might think, it would push back into the womb these days.
Whole societies are in shut down and locked in. If the sky is closing, one feels the abyss of comatose standstill and could easily confuse the momentary calm with an eternal one.

“Bunker mood”, observes media theorist Peter Weibel in the present day socium. A contagious phenomenon. Every one for himself among the many. These days, the term hermit has taken on a new meaning. Welcome to the new distance society …

Maybe we have been sitting too close to each other for far too long, and this is what we have now: a virus that forces us to retreat.

Assuming that humanity has actually crawled back into the womb these days. Sure, we know, a state like that won’t last. The child must be born, even if it is called humanity. A lot of things went wrong in his previous life. Or maybe things just got terribly complicated. The economy with its swaps and flops, its derivatives and bailouts that nobody understands anymore. From consumerism and capitalism to the climate crisis, from health care to redistribution – many people have ideas, nobody knows what works anymore. The system has decoupled itself from the people. This frustrates politicians who are supposed to make sustainable and systemically relevant decisions. And it depresses the technocrats who want to optimise systematically. Many people think that little of it succeeds. Capitalism continues to bloat. The world is getting hot flashes. Fire is rolling like a fever in some areas. In others, water eats the coasts. We mourned it, yet we kept taking off and flying. But now finally the planes stay on the ground. For this a virus has landed. It took this arrival in horror to make us pause.

The era of air travel and mass mobility will perhaps be remembered as the era of frenzied standstill. Now begins the era of the standstill of frenzy (Weibel). Airfields where no planes take off, orphaned highways and railway lines, roads so empty that you can picnic on them. A slowdown of life. The quiet cities seem like invitations to wander in them again. The air is better than ever these days.

Suppose not only individuals, but whole civilisations could be reborn. They rise, they fall, they perish, a new one comes into life. One thing is certain, no civilisation is born twice.
What’s obviously dying out: physical proximity. Students in overcrowded lecture halls, employees treading on each other’s toes in offices, shopping-hungry consumers pushing past each other in shopping malls, fans crowding together in stadiums and at festivals, parades with thousands of participants – all that is yesterday’s news. Prohibited in the present, feared in the future because potentially dangerous. Welcome to the new distance society …

Because proximity has become dangerous, we will set up in the distance.

“Only temporarily,” contradict the backward looking among the prophets.
I think they are wrong. After this coronavirus will be before the next and new one. Corona demonstrates that the mass accumulations of modernity offer too much proximity for viruses. They jump from one to the next, microscopic free-riders of mobility, travel by plane as fast as an arrow, hop across national borders and spread congenially continental.
The holiday society in particular has waged war against nature, claims Weibel. “The virus forces us to end this war.”
Hopefully the world will recover now. Hopefully it will also be beneficial for the people. And we’ll find ways to be close to each other even far away. That’s probably what rebirth is all about.

Enjoy the silence! Stay healthy!

Yours – Otmar Jenner

P.S. Just received an audio file via mail – allegedly a message from the Association of German Psychiatrists: “Since we are flooded with calls, we would like to inform you, dear fellow citizens, that it is absolutely normal in the time of quarantine that you start talking to the walls, plants and other things. Please call us only if they answer to you. Thank you.”

P.S (2). Dear readers, English is not my mother tongue. If you find striking mistakes in the wording, please let me know (oj@otmarjenner.de).

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Questions provide often the best answers:

Question 1: Why is the coronavirus spreading from China at great speed throughout the world?
Question 2: Why are almost all western industrialised nations reducing their production while China is ramping up its own?
Question 3: Why did China report the new coronavirus and Covid-19 to the WHO when the government in Beijing otherwise suppresses bad news in the media?
Question 4: Why has the oil price fallen to a historic low since January, and the biggest beneficiaries of this are currently the Chinese?
Question 5: Why are giant metropolises such as Beijing (21 million), Shanghai (24 million) or Shenzhen (12 million) “spared” from spreading infection without further quarantine measures?
Question 6: Why does the Chinese president currently enjoy a higher reputation worldwide than before the coronacrisis?
Question 7: Why is the sentence “Follow the money if you want to understand why something is happening” indisputable in the times of corona?

Question 8: Why are China’s neighbouring countries or regions such as Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia or Myanmar hardly affected or at least not so excessively?
Question 9: Why does the country with the world’s largest domestic market benefit from the corona crisis?
Question 10: Why did the USA start a trade war with China and now appear as big losers due to the coronacrisis?
Question 11: Is the so-called Western world under threat of a hostile takeover by China?
Question 12: Is there a threat of war between China and the United States because the USA will not hand over its previous supremacy to the Chinese without a fight?

Questions over questions.

A 13th and 14st question also comes up: Why did decision-makers from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the World Economic Forum and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation meet in the morning of October 28, 2019 in New York for a “pandemic tabletop exercise that simulated a series of dramatic, scenario-based facilitated discussions, confronting difficult, true-to-life dilemmas associated with response to a hypothetical, but scientifically plausible, pandemic” (about two months before the corona outbreak in Wuhan)? Why does the played out disaster scenario (called “Event 201”) outlined a new type of corona virus, similar to the SARS pathogen, which is transmitted by bats, causes mild symptoms in most people and leads to a severe pandemic?

Any one of these questions is legitimate, I think. I’m aware that they point in one direction.

“But in the sum these questions assume the answer that the corona crisis is artificially made up,” comments a friend and journalist. “I don’t know if you have read the scientific publications on the genome of the new coronavirus for example. Nothing speaks for deliberate human intervention in the matter – except the understandable longing to find someone to blame for this devastating catastrophe.”

In fact, I have read several studies on the results of genome sequencing. I also think that no one has set this pandemic in motion in order to achieve a certain result. Rather, I believe that it is a coincidence of events which, taken together, make something very big. Big in the sense of terribly big. Big in the sense of an opportunity too. It is this coincidence of individual aspects which, in any case, produces this grave interaction and ongoing crisis.

The author Lothar Hirneise has already asked some of the questions on his blog. Yes, questions provide often the best answers. Currently also in connection with the novel coronavirus. Some of the questions mentioned already sound like answers. And the chain of questions seem to point to a common answer. As plausible as this may look at first sight, it is not proof of a deliberate influence on the matter. All the more carefully the questions mentioned should be questioned individually and as a whole.
In other words, I would like to have answers to the above questions. However, I’m afraid they are not as simple as some people would like.

Stay healthy!

Yours – Otmar Jenner

P.S. Dear readers, English is not my mother tongue. If you find any mistakes in the wording, please let me know (oj@otmarjenner.de).

#otmarjenner #corona #covid 19 #SARS-CoV-2 #energyhealing #healing #happiness #heal #healingvibes #energy #spirituality #meditation #spiritual #chakras #goodvibes #selflove #psychic #yoga #energybites #instagood #metaphysical #awakening #spiritualhealing #positiveenergy #energyhealer #consciousliving #consciousness #healingprocess #justhealing #compassion #forgiveness #guidance

Going out again with a mask. What is weird: almost 90 percent don’t wear one. The street is busier than yesterday. Going out to buy food is still permitted in Berlin at the moment. Even wandering around is allowed. Going out with your partner, child and dog as well. In order to help other people, you are also free to go out. Meeting a friend or girlfriend is also possible, but please keep a safe distance of 1.50 meters. However, the Berlin Senate had not yet been able to agree on penalties for violations.
I am meeting a friend. Like me he is wearing a face mask. Two hooded men greeting each other. What are we talking about? Sure, what’s going on in the world.
My friend is a journalist. He tells me about strange curfews in Colombia. The sexes are now only allowed to step outside separately. Men one day, women the next. In Morocco, the army monitors the curfew. Public places are controlled by soldiers. Even tanks are positioned. One person per housing unit is allowed to buy food. The measures in Jordan are even more drastic. A total curfew is in force. Under no circumstances is it permitted to leave the apartment. Food and beverages must be delivered. A similar order was temporarily issued in India. The President of the Philippines is said to have urged the forces of law and order in his country to use firearms when enforcing measures. Comparatively moderate: For about three weeks now, the inhabitants of Tenerife have only been allowed to leave their house or apartment every other day. And this only for shopping. Walks on the beach? Forbidden. Despite springtime with summery 20 degrees in the Canary Islands.

The world in solitary confinement. What do you think of our government’s measures, I ask my friend. Exaggerated or not?

My friend frowns. Of course he is aware of the different estimations even on the expert level in Germany. Some think that the measures are not yet strict enough. Others find them far too drastic and demand a loosening up.

“And you?” I ask.

“If the Chinese, Italian, Spanish, British, Israeli, Indian and German governments, even the former reluctant Americans and on the other hand the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and other dictatorial regimes, are in agreement – in other words, if participants who normally disagree on all other issues, but agree on the estimation of the danger posed by the new corona virus, then I would not doubt it now“, my friend answered.

What a sentence!

Time for science fiction: The ice on the polar caps is melting like the glaciers on Iceland and in the Himalayas. The sea level is rising. In the Maldives, Bangladesh and the Netherlands land is under threat. The mild winters in Europe can be survived wearing flip-flops. The summers are so hot that brains are boiling. In Australia, on the Iberian Peninsula and in California, stretches of land are going up in flames due to prolonged dryness. Even politics seems to be drying up these days. There’s a lot of talk and little decision making. A girl stands up and complains. She is heard. And not heard. Who’s in charge? More and more people are asking the same questions.

The imaginative among them sense a secret arrangement that is dragging the entire planet into an abyss. An alliance that is deliberately and shamelessly enriching itself at the public’s expense. A club that orchestrates and directs the global economy. Who creates needs and initiates dependencies. An octopus that eats anything that is digestible. And spreads growing poverty like dog poo across the globe as markers of its power.

The unimaginative people say it’s just a momentum called capitalism. It’s good because it means freedom. Sure, it’s not so good that astronomical sums are piling up in the bank accounts of very few people, and that there is a spooky ebb tide in the accounts of the vast majority. But that’s how democracy is organised these days: economically. Feel free. And enjoy the freedom to fiddle with your smartphone at any time. Or isn’t that your favourite companion and friend? And anyway, do you already have Netflix or AmazonPrime? What are you complaining about, you ungrateful human shame?

Who’s complaining these days? There are individual voices, right. There are also choirs from the right wing. And those on the left want something radically new for the future, but can’t agree on steps to achieve it. And then there are the ghosts of the political scenery. Scattered souls who have something clever in their minds and do it in a stupid way. Not to speak of the majority, sleeping in the seats of parliament. Parliaments seem to drown in their own insignificance. More and more voters stay away on election day. Why cast a vote if it has no impact?

Dreams of a fairer and therefore better world – buried after the economic crisis of 2008.

The planet is heating up, so is general dissatisfaction. But what is happening? Very little. Governments seem to have their hands tied. Who is still in charge, more and more people are wondering. If the corona virus wouldn’t have such horrific effects, some would call it a much-needed saviour.

And now a voice appears in this story after all. It belongs to a well-known economist and associate professor in Vienna, but he will be mentioned here just as Dr. H., to emphasise the fictional aspect of the whole story. I have to confess, that I like imaginative material, value unusual ideas (even if I find them possibly wrong) and like to rethink simplifying explanations of complicated facts, even if I may reject them afterwards – because this is quite simply the case, I would like to give Dr. H.’s remarks on the viral crisis some space here. At the same time I like to emphasise: in my opinion these remarks are pure science fiction.

“I think,” says Dr. H., “this is heading to a shutdown of our entire social, economic and legal system. We have to understand that economics and law, as well as education, political science and unfortunately ethics as normative sciences are not really sciences at all. They are sciences only by name. In reality they are ideological belief systems to which people in our society have been socialised and thus emotionally committed.“

Because the rimless glasses have slipped on the bridge of his nose, Dr. H. returns them to their original position with a reflex-like grip. “But now people behind the scenes are realising that these systems have reached the end of their usefulness.”

It could be assumed that alternative models have been prepared in the background during the last 20 years.

“Now, if you want to transfer a global civilisation into another social system, then you naturally need a cover story, a legend that the population believes, while remaining obedient and keeping calm at the same time.“

Dr. H. takes a short break. “This is what this pandemic is all about.”

To a certain extent par excellence, one would like to add ironically.

“Ideally one with just a few deaths. The few that do occur must of course be exaggerated, as happened in Italy. Where everyone who dies and is also a carrier of the virus is called a corona deaths, so you can turn the screw of fear. This is the only explanation for the trillions of dollars and euros that were already willingly destroyed as collateral damage in conjunction with a disease. Now you can ask, compared with spring flu, what is the difference?“

What’s the difference? The explanation of my friend comes to my mind.

Dr. H. raises his index finger, smiles: “But you can only judge this if you know the motive of those who are organising this from the background. I have the confidence that these are positive intentions. Because if they wanted something negative, such as enslaving the whole population, they wouldn’t have needed the current crisis, i.e. corona and economic shutdown, for that. They simply would have had to continue as they have done for the last twenty years. The negative goal of a bad world order could have been achieved without this so-called pandemic. But the fact that it has now arrived in this form, and that it has been dealt with globally, in coordination with practically all the major states on this planet, and that this scenario is being dealt with in such a coordinated way, indicates, in my view, that this is a very dramatic, fundamental and positive reorganisation of our social structure. And I am already very curious to see which proposals and models will be applied as a result.“

As I said: a short excursion into the realm of science fiction. Two years ago I published a novel (“The Oldest”) in this genre. A next one (“33”) will follow. But I actually heard the story I just told you, I didn’t make it up. There are strange fantasies circulating on the internet. I have thought about this one with pleasure.

The pictures of the moon landing, of the mourning for Lady Di and the planes crashing into the Twin Towers traveled around the world and got supreme attention. But the current worldwide reaction is a new dimension. For such an effect it would need aliens as common enemy and threat, I thought until recently. I was wrong. All it takes is a virus.

But yes, this is science fiction as I said before. Another friend, a physician, said to me this morning: “Have you heard? According to the Robert Koch Institute, the average age of Covid-19 death victims in Germany is 81 years. Does the virus make people statistically older than the normal average age? A long-live-virus, then?“

Sure, this is science fiction too.

Stay healthy!

Yours – Otmar Jenner

P.S. Dear readers, English is not my mother tongue. If you find any mistakes in the wording, please let me know (oj@otmarjenner.de).

#otmarjenner #corona #covid 19 #SARS-CoV-2 #energyhealing #healing #happiness #heal #healingvibes #energy #spirituality #meditation #spiritual #chakras  #goodvibes #selflove #psychic #yoga #energybites #instagood #metaphysical #awakening #spiritualhealing #positiveenergy #energyhealer #consciousliving #consciousness #healingprocess #justhealing #compassion #forgiveness #guidance

“A lot of people are nervous. A majority of them is even scared.” These are the sentences that I hear from psychotherapists and medical professionals during the last days.
We have dramatic disease rates in Europe. Lockdown in New York. What kind of wave is rolling towards us?

Some experts in virology and epidemiology (i.a. Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, Professor of microbiology and infection epidemiology in Mainz) believe that we are increasingly suffering from draconian government measures. The worldwide reactions to Corona are exaggerated – if not undully.

Mathias Beiglböck, Philipp Grohs, Joachim Hermisson, Magnus Nordborg and Walter Schachermayer, almost all mathematicians at the University of Vienna, share an opposite view. They have recalculated the Covid-19 infection, morbidity and fatality rates and issued a statement on 30.3.2020 via the Austrian government website. The professors came to the following conclusion: If the corona epidemic continues to spread at an exponential rate, i.e. if one infected person infects at least one other person, the collapse of the Austrian health care system with tens of thousands of deaths is most likely to occur. The goal should be to reduce the infection rate significantly. “This will probably require way more stringent measures rather than those that currently in force.” Otherwise a shutdown of the Austrian health care system is to be expected in mid-April. However, the developments in the USA, especially in New York, give rise to the fear that the situation in some places will deteriorate even more rapidly.

How dangerous is Covid-19, the disease caused by an infection with the novel coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 really?

Reliable evidence is provided by epidemiological data from the cruise liner “Diamond Princess“. All of 3,711 passengers on board have ben tested. 697 were tested as corona-positive. 328 of those who were tested positive showed no symptoms. 2,071 passengers were between 0 and 69 years old. About 50 of them were tested positive, but had no symptoms. About 180 had symptoms. No one in this group died from Covid-19. 1,231 passengers were 70 and older. Seven of them died.
A cruise ship is a closed population. You live in a confined space. Stewarts, bartenders and other members of the crew are so-called superspreaders. If they are (unknowingly) infected, they can very quickly infect many other people. Despite the cramped conditions, only about 20% of the passengers were infected. This, however, in a very short time. About a half of the infected passengers showed no symptoms. The average age on the ship was 58 years. 33% were over 70, including the seven who died.

Dr. Timothy Russel, biologist and mathematician at the London School of Hygene & Tropical Medicine, calculated a case fatality ratio of 0.5%.
In contrast, the WHO assumes a case fatality rate of 3.4%.

Prof. Dr. med. Pietro Vernazza, Chief Physician for Infectiology at the Swiss Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen sees the governmental measures in most European countries similarly critical as the already mentioned Prof. Bhakdi from Mainz. The physician refers to a publication in the magazine Science. Epidemiologist Ruiyun Li (University of Beijing, Imperial College London) and colleagues had re-evaluated the medical emergency in China due to corona. The conclusion:
Around 85% (82-90%) of all infections occurred without anyone noticing the infection.
About 55% of those who were unnoticed have infected other people.

Vernazza wonders how this publication could “pass us by almost unnoticed” in the current agitation: “Actually, we have been suspecting this for a long time. Otherwise it would not have been possible to explain why the infection figures in China have dropped to zero after a few weeks. Because this cannot be explained with an immunity rate of less than 1% of the population (less than 100,000 people out of about 10 million have fallen ill in Wuhan). It wouldn’t even be surprising if further researches put the rate of silent infections even higher. This new and not surprising finding must quickly lead to an evidence-based correction of our measures.“
The Swiss expert demands: “Finally inform the population and speak plainly. This infection is mild for young people. Fear is not a good advisor. Most people have the idea of a terribly dangerous disease. Yes, it is true: In Italy, about one person in ten diagnosed dies. But as we now know from this publication in science, that’s more likely one in 1,000 infected people.”

Scientists (on the subject of virology / epidemiology) are divided on questioning the threat of corona. There is no doubt that economic experts are in agreement on the gravity of the matter.
But why do I write about it in my blog?

1. Because balanced reporting is rare these days.
2. Because I believe that uncertainty in the evaluation of the danger from Covid-19 should not be an invitation to act carelessly.
3. And finally, because there is a country that has hardly any problems with new infections by Sars-CoV-2 so far: Japan

Despite certain historical issues, Chinese go on holiday in Japan in large numbers. This year in January 925,000 came to visit. Even in February there were 89,000 visitors from China in Japan. There is no evaluation how many of them were already infected. With an average age of 48.4, Japan’s population has the highest proportion of senior citizens (i.e. the risk group) in the world. Which is important in this context because (as figures from the cruise ship confirm) Covid-19 tends to spare the young and affect the elderly.
Why are the effects of the current pandemic in Japan (at least so far) less serious then?
Sure, Premier Abe has closed schools and cancelled events to slow down the spread. But restaurants and shops remained open. A much gentler response than in Europe.
So why haven’t many more people in Japan contracted a Covid-19-infection? What saved the Japanese health system from collapsing?
One reason is probably that little corona-testing has been done in Japan so far (with hope to save the Olympics – which didn’t work). But an important part of the answer can be seen in the following photo (a screenshot from the internet):

People in Japan wearing masks, DPA, Screenshot

People who wear masks to protect other people from possible infection. An everyday picture during the winter months in the metropolises of Japan. As soon as a wave of influenza threatens, many people leave their homes only wearing a mask. Because they protect others, they protect themselves.

Another photo in this context. Taken at Buckingham Palace on 11.3.2020. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s handshake and bow to the Queen. Her birthday is coming up. She will be 94 years old. Johnson, who in the meantime has contracted Covid-19, now governs from quarantine. The Queen should be fine. She’s weathered worse than this.

Boris Johnson’s handshake and bow to the Queen, 11.3.2020, Screenshot from the BBC-News-page

But all the current ignorance of power is, in my opinion, reflected in this photo. As a reminder: Covid-19 endangers old people more than young ones, especially very old people.
Despite contradictory news on the scale of the corona epidemic and appropriate crisis management: young people are invited to protect all old people as good as they can.

So first of all: Put on a protective mask, dear people, before you step out into the street! If you don’t have a mask, wrap a scarf or cloth around your nose and mouth. Something is still better than nothing!
Don’t run into other people in public places, for example in the supermarket or on the bus or subway! Avoid other people, no matter what age!
Observe the hygiene rules required by health authorities. This cannot be wrong in any case.

Indeed, I believe that the growing mindfulness creates a new way of living together. For now social distancing is necessary. As a result we will be much more ready for a new time of rapprochement and closeness.

Yours – Otmar Jenner

P.S. Dear readers, English is not my mother tongue. If you find serious mistakes in the wording of an article, please let me know (oj@otmarjenner.de).

#otmarjenner #corona #covid 19 #SARS-CoV-2 #energyhealing #healing #happiness #heal #healingvibes #energy #spirituality #meditation #spiritual #chakras  #goodvibes #selflove #psychic #yoga #energybites #instagood #metaphysical #awakening #spiritualhealing #positiveenergy #energyhealer #consciousliving #consciousness #healingprocess #justhealing #compassion #forgiveness #guidance

“Dear friend and fellow prisoner,” a friend’s message to me today began, “let’s celebrate…”

What? His birthday. Online, in a chat room, as he explains.

What has changed in my life in recent weeks, I have recently been asked.
Everything. To put it bluntly. I’m now getting emails calling me a fellow prisoner.

I thought I was free.

My friend, to make this clear right away, has not committed any crime, has not been convicted of any crime and is therefore not serving any sentence in a state prison.
Nevertheless, a few sentences later in his mail the term “imprisonment” appears. Again as if I was part of it.

The Aztec goddess “Coatlicue” (“The One with the Snake Skirt”): She embodies, it is said, the ambivalence between intimacy and autonomy. This can also be seen in the context of society as a whole.

It cannot be overlooked now: certain freedoms that were once taken for granted, are suddenly curtailed. Suppose there was a need for me to buy new jeans – difficult these days. The relevant shops are closed. Sure, I would still get some pants if I needed them. Probably none that I like, though. At my favourite café the doors are barricaded. Not even coffee to go. Kreuzberg in an artificial coma. An unfamiliar picture.

Since gatherings of more than two people are prohibited in Berlin, I only meet friends individually. At least that intensifies the conversation. I had to cancel seminars. For a visit to my practice you now need a good reason. Many things must now be solved by telephone.
Hardly anything still works as before. The present seems so new, you’d think it had just been invented.

I then called my friend to speak as a fellow prisoner about his and my imprisonment.
“Been out for a long time today”, he explains and reports on an extended walk. Between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. he had walked from Kreuzberg to the eastern outskirts of Berlin. “Walked fast, got far. Wonderful in the sun. I saw my city with new eyes.”
I hear joy in his voice and I notice, “On the loose, if I understand you correctly.”

I know people who take social distancing very seriously. For example, a young couple from Spain lives in the house next door. They haven’t left their shared apartment for about three weeks. Letters and parcels as well as food deliveries have to remain outside the apartment door for 24 hours as a quarantine measure. They communicate with neighbours by calling through the closed door. Only when the hallway is empty do they move the deliveries in.
The real prison these days is fear. Am I imprisoned by fear? I would deny it. I think it’s likely that I will be infected with the new virus in the near future. I am not afraid of that. I am more concerned about the loss of individual freedom of movement and the dismantling of democratic rights. We will soon know how justified this concern is.

As uncomfortable as social distancing may seem. I have no serious problem with it. In fact, suddenly people I know only by sight greet me from afar. And as they greet, they smile. In the past, they almost ran over me, stomped past me without a greeting, without looking at me, and they didn’t smile either.
The (almost) standstill in the mechanics of the city creates a whole new, unusual freedom. Sounds probably strange, maybe also not very empathetic, because people suffer from the current viral consequences.
But while things are currently getting tight in some areas, for example in your own home, when the ceiling slowly falls on your head, new rooms are opening up at the same time. Even if they are thought spaces.
What do I want? What do I need? What do I enjoy? What do I love? What frightens me? What gives me courage? What gives me joy? How can I find fulfilment?
The slowing down of the world almost automatically generates a concentration on essential questions. The fog of distraction lifts. Answers become visible.
I too wandered through the city today. Explorations in the new space of silence. In some faces I believed to read findings.
What does life mean to me?, I thought.

Is happiness standing at the foot of a mountain asking, “Shall I come up to you?
The mountain answers: Stay where you are! I’m coming down to you!

Even if nobody can say exactly what life actually is – I feel we have every reason to kneel before it.

Yours – Otmar Jenner

P.S. Dear readers, English is not my mother tongue. If you find serious mistakes in the wording of an article, please let me know (oj@otmarjenner.de).

#otmarjenner #corona #covid 19 #SARS-CoV-2 #energyhealing #healing #happiness #heal #healingvibes #energy #spirituality #meditation #spiritual #chakras  #goodvibes #selflove #psychic #yoga #energybites #instagood #metaphysical #awakening #spiritualhealing #positiveenergy #energyhealer #consciousliving #consciousness #healingprocess #justhealing #compassion #forgiveness #guidance

In the new times of silence a space of thought opens up.

It’s an invitation to enter it. To actually think.

Today (21.3.2020) I have thought about the following photo.

Bondi Beach, Sydney, Screenshot from the BBC News page (21.3.2020)

A shot of Bondi Beach in Sydney. Because it is still summer in the southern hemisphere (about 27 degrees), people naturally want to go swimming. But they are not allowed to anymore. Corona has also arrived in Australia. Social Distancing is now the order of the day.
The whole stupidity of the current debate, one might think, is shown in this picture.
Hey folks, it says, stay at home, keep your distance!
As if sitting around at home is healthier than walking on the beach or swimming in the sea.

Wrong. Almost every child knows that sea air helps with respiratory diseases. The same applies, of course, to walks in the woods, visits to the park and, in principle, every walk out the door. That is why some doctors are already warning of the negative consequences of curfews and domestic locked-in. The consequences of lack of exercise will be seen in overcrowded orthopaedic and cardiology practices.

From Sydney, where the summer is slowly fading away, to Berlin, where the winter is just ending. The 10 degrees on the thermometer feel like much more. The sun glistens silvery in the spring air. I put on a protective mask before I enter the hallway, but take it off again outside on the street, taking care to keep a safe distance in case I am unknowingly already a carrier of the infection.
People come towards me. Some of them move past me in sweeping arches, showing that they have understood the commandment of social distancing. Others run straight at me as if on rails. Because of them I jump onto the road several times. Not because I am afraid of these people, but to protect them from possible infection by me.
That’s how I wander the streets, avoiding people. People avoid me. Some give me a nice smile. Others seem to be already by themselves. All alone in a kind of introspective state of mind. Probably arrived in this completely new space of thoughts that has opened up these days.
Except for grocery stores, everything is closed in Berlin Kreuzberg. Cafés as well as fashion boutiques. So there are hardly any possibilities to distract oneself through consumption. A very pure and immediate feeling. What do I need? What do I not need?
Berliners currently need so much toilet paper that it is always sold out by noon. For a moment I toy with the idea of entering a supermarket. It’s still just before noon. Might get lucky. What for? I think then. I think I’ve got enough for another week. But what if I’m unlucky at the end of the week and there isn’t any left?
With these thoughts in my head I wander on and suddenly find myself in front of a barbershop. Astonished, I look in through the window. A small shop. Twelve people are getting their hair done at once. The chairs on which they sit are very narrow. So narrow that when they cut, the hairdressers just fit through the gaps. 
I consider taking a photo with my mobile phone, but immediately discard the idea. But the sight irritates me so much that I decide to write this text.

If Corona were a Buddhist deity, she would certainly be counted among the angry gods. The wrathful goddess Corona obviously wants to show us that we should change our behaviour.

Really? What behaviour is that? And change it how?

It may be that the worldwide reaction to Corona has many questionable aspects (as some doctors say). It is possible that the fear associated with corona is part of the actual disease. However, 800 people have died of Covid-19 during the course of today in Italy alone. The fact that the virologists’ predictions are exaggerated, as larger parts of the German population still believe, thus seems increasingly absurd. Comparisons with the severe flu epidemic of 2017/2018 therefore fall short. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is apparently attacking much harder. Nevertheless, a fundamental mistrust of official figures and announcements may be guiding the steps of some people. But are doubts about the official version according to the virus an invitation to join Corona parties? The anarchist counter-proposal, call it Corona-punk, sounds like this: Forget the virus, let’s have fun!
Weird, but a lot of people think: I don’t care what’s happening right now. As long as I don’t see it, don’t feel it, don’t suffer from it, I don’t care at all. And yes, I would like to have all that behind me. So, where’s the celebration of contagion taking place? Then it will be all over much sooner.

People had very similar thoughts at the time of the great plague epidemic.

A basically understandable escapism. People are impatient. You want to get rid of unpleasant things as quickly as possible. And: Whatever Corona means medically, the fuss about it is already unpleasant. Besides: Who does not know the paradoxical impulse to want to do exactly what is not appropriate, nor helpful, or healthy?

But are impatience and paradoxical impulses helpful in the fight against Corona?

I don’t think so.

Could be that all predictions concerning Corona are still understated.
Because at present no one can accurately predict the exact extent of possible devastation caused by corona (the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the disease COVID-19), because a pandemic could, in the worst case, result in millions of deaths – because this possibility cannot be ruled out, responsible action is now required of every individual.
Move as attentively and cautiously as you can to protect others (and thus the general public) from possible infection by you – this could be the categorical corona imperative (freely adapted from Kant).

Corona? It’s just hype, created by stupid politicians to spoil our mood, that’s what people in Australia my have thought too. As proof a second photo, shot the day before (i.e. on 20.3.2020). Again the Bondi beach, another perspective:

Bondi Beach, Sydney, Screenshot from the BBC News page – one day before (20.3.2020)

At the time the photo was takenn there were already over 600 corona infected people in Australia and a ban on outdoor gatherings of more than 500 people. You could start counting the people in the photo now. But it is not about the number. It’s more about the personal space that each individual in the photograph occupies.

As beautiful as the casualness in the photo is. It is wrong under the present conditions. Anyone who does not understand this by now will be punished with curfews, cordoned-off beaches and forests that are no longer allowed to be entered. The latter is also wrong. But unfortunately the lesser of the two evils. So that we are spared this, here is an appeal: Let us show our government by acting responsibly that curfews are not necessary!
In this sense: Stay healthy!!

Yours – Otmar Jenner

P.S. Dear readers, English is not my mother tongue. If you find serious mistakes in the wording of an article, please let me know (oj@otmarjenner.de).

#otmarjenner #corona #covid 19 #SARS-CoV-2 #energyhealing #healing #happiness #heal #healingvibes #energy #spirituality #meditation #spiritual #chakras  #goodvibes #selflove #psychic #yoga #energybites #instagood #metaphysical #awakening #spiritualhealing #positiveenergy #energyhealer #consciousliving #consciousness #healingprocess #justhealing #compassion #forgiveness #guidance