3/01/2020

Weekly Book Wrap-Up #105 – Coronavirus

With the Weekly Book Wrap-Up, I give you a bit of an insight into all the new books that have arrived at my place. No matter if I won a giveaway, got approved for a reviewer´s copy, an ARC or just bought one myself. Everything that I add to my shelves, in what way ever and read during the past week or am still reading, I will write about it.  And maybe I tell you a bit about the upcoming things on Inkvotary, that is if I don´t forget it and have something to share with you *smile*

I am linking up with Tynga´s Reviews and Caffeinated Reviewer and hope you´ll have fun reading it and maybe get the one or the other book inspiration.

Stacking The Shelves #105

No news here, sorry. 

Sunday Post #62

The Carnival season this year was a very wet and windy one. But as we now know, that wasn´t the worst to happen. Since Ash Wednesday we know that we have our first confirmed Corona case. Germany is, like the US, a group of many different states. And last Wednesday the health minister from the state I live in, held a press conference to inform us about that new Corona case. It is not the first one confirmed in Germany, that was a man in Bavaria about a month ago, but the circumstances obviously made it clear that the people needed to be informed. To be honest, the isolated man in Bavaria didn´t concern me at all. I heard it in the news, took notice and hoped that the man would be well soon. The press conference on Wednesday made it very clear that the Corona case in our state has no connection to the man in Bavaria. This time, the virus was brought in from Italy and there the search for patient zero is still going on. At least that´s what we hear in the news.

After that press conference, I went on with my day and planned on going to the supermarket the next day (Thursday). I wanted to get some stuff that was on sale. It never came to my mind that maybe other people would react with panic and hoarding groceries, masks or disinfectants. But that was exactly what happened. That there was also a snowstorm warning from the weather forecast (called Bianca) and severe winds, apparently was only a side note. Because all the people had heard and kept in mind was: The virus is here, and we must panic.

Which was, of course, quite the opposite of what the health minister had intended. But what I saw at the supermarket Thursday around noon surprised me. EMPTY SHELVES. No soup on sale, but the empty shelves they had been in. No Skyr on sale, but an empty space. There is no order from the health ministerium that we have to go in homely isolation or that they will lock down the area or certain cities (like in Italy). But people act like it.

Please, don´t get me wrong. That virus is nothing we should take lightly. And each of us knows what we can do to prevent us from getting sick or only get hit with the sniffles. We do it all the time every year during the Influenza season. The press conference was meant to inform us, to let the people know what the current situation was, that we don´t need to panic or to be rigid with fear.

But that´s exactly what happened.

Drugstores and supermarkets in the entire state are running out of masks and disinfectant. People are hoarding. And I can truly say that Germany usually isn´t like that. And it feels completely surreal. Sure, you can watch around certain holidays that people buy more stuff than normal. But what I´ve seen during the past three days is INSANE. The picture was even worse on Friday.

During Friday night the number of those, who are confirmed infected, rose to fourteen which means that Germany in total has now around seventy confirmed Corona cases. And two of them are a bit too close for my taste, to where I live. So, yes, now I am a bit concerned. I feel a bit worried and a bit weird. But I see no reason to panic. Yes, the fact, that the virus is spreading very fast and that they still have not found patient zero in Italy, which is the current epicenter of the virus, is not very helpful but, again, panic and fear are the worst advisors.

But there is some good news too. The first Coronavirus case, the man from Bavaria, is well again and back home. He can´t go to work yet because of the rule that his body has to be completely free of the Coronavirus (which isn´t the case so far). The virus is dead, that is confirmed, but not out of his system yet. How long that will take nobody knows for sure. But he is happy at home and together with his family. And that´s all that counts for him.

Yesterday, while I was writing this post, the next storm hit us. Heavy winds around the house, the sunny daylight changed into a cloudy grey within minutes and it became freezing cold. If feels actually more like April instead of the end of February or the fact, that we have a Leap Year and celebrated yesterday the 29th of February.

How was your week?

Happy reading

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