Respiratory droplets

 

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A directive established in this pandemic could remain: the social distancing of at least 2 meters. People are used to always being close. If we are looking for a product on a supermarket shelf, the aisle may be empty and soon someone will come and look at the same shelf. Like that, several similar cases happen... or happened, before Covid.

I liked the joke about the Swedes [1]: « Il y a une blague qu’on fait souvent [en Suède], c’est que les Suédois ont hâte que la règle de distanciation de deux mètres soit relevée pour qu’ils puissent retrouver leurs cinq mètres d’avant. Ce n’est pas un peuple qui est super chaleureux, comme nous on peut l’être au Québec »… in free translation (with the inevitable distancing): “Swedes are looking forward to ending the two meter rule, so that they can resume the five meters distancing they were used to keep before. They are not super warm people like we can be in Quebec”.

I don't agree with that. To be warm, we don't have to be clingy! And Quebecers are not clingy.

From early childhood, we learned what respiratory droplets [2] (perdigotos in Portuguese) were. Our Aunt Conceição used to cover her cup with her hand as we approached. Of course, we asked our parents the reason for this gesture. The ruthless curiosity of the children is infallible and the explanation was: "It is because of the respiratory droplets". With good didactics, this was proved conclusively, against the light to see the droplets coming out of the mouths of people who were speaking. Some people don't even need a backlight to give us proof of the phenomenon. I think it internalized in my mind, I still maintain some social distancing, very handy today, with the pandemic. I understand the Swedes. Did they have Conceição aunts?

Vive my aunt Conceição !

I also don't do without a napkin on my mug, in case there is a coffee-loving bug, even if there isn’t any flying around the house. This also applies to respiratory droplets 😆. This habit comes from my mother, when our house was still almost in the countryside, so to speak, and windows and doors had no screens. My mother kept all the pans covered, and when a person stepped away from his/her plate, she waved her hand like a fan over the plate, or asked the one sit just beside the absent person to do so.

Another recommendation that I remembered and started to follow, in these times of pandemic, whenever possible, was what my father's cousin jokingly said that my father avoided touching the places where everyone touches, in the hospitals where he worked. To push open a door like those opening without a handle, like swing or sliding doors, he said my father would touch them at the top. But the really good thing is washing our hands, ALWAYS! My mom and dad were unbeatable in this regard, they would put any WHO recommendation in the shade, and their surveillance was more than “googlean”.😉

I take this opportunity to repeat: don't forget the MASK!😷

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[1] Au pays où le masque est en option

[2] Image URL