Back on the park bench, having a quick smoke. Even a blind man could see that the mood on the street has changed. It’s subtle, but there’s no denying it.
Yesterday, at noon, the president gave a press conference, along with the ministers of health, interior, and defense. The message was basically “No cause for alarm.” But people are more alarmed with each passing hour.
What adds to the alarm is that the opposition party’s leader is demanding the immediate closure of ports and airports. COPE radio station in Madrid is calling for the army to occupy the borders. Just forty-eight hours after deploying soldiers to Dagestan, they’ve decided to bring them back.
I don’t usually agree with talk show host Federico Losantos and his ultra-right-wing ranting on the radio, but maybe he’s right this time. The situation seems to be completely out of control. In Russia, chaos has broken out for sure. Entire regions are incommunicado. No one’s in control. News of looting, pillaging, and mass murder is spreading like wildfire across the Internet. Channel 5 broadcast French satellite images last night. You could see huge fires burning in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, only three hundred miles from its border with Dagestan. There’s no word from the city, and no one seems to be fighting the fires. What the fuck’s going on? Are they trying to burn the place down?
The WHO finally ruled that it’s definitely West Nile virus and a strain of a disease similar to Ebola. Ebola. In every newspaper, on every radio and television station, they never tire of repeating that it’s a hemorrhagic fever that affects humans and primates. Since it was discovered in 1976, they’ve identified five strains: Ebola Bundibugyo, Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Reston, and Ebola Tai Forest or Ivory Coast. Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids, primarily blood or saliva, and has a fatality rate up to 90 percent. But some sources have said this can’t be Ebola, or at least none of the known strains. Rumors all over the place and not one goddamn bit of concrete information!
Deep down, I don’t think anybody has any fucking idea what’s going on. They’re flying blind. The Swiss government has ordered the mass vaccination of its entire population with Tamiflu, to prevent bird flu. The United Kingdom has temporarily closed the Channel Tunnel and its ports, but they think there’re already cases there, brought in by infected aid workers who rushed to evacuate out of Dagestan. Many came back wounded; some had been attacked by rabid animals. In Germany the situation is even worse. The Ramstein quarantine hasn’t worked, and they’ve declared martial law. How long till Spain adopts similar measures?
I’m not sure what’s going on in the rest of the world, but in Atlanta they’re talking about a global pandemic. In the United States, apocalyptic sects are getting ready for an invasion of Martians or some crazy thing like that. Meanwhile, the US president has announced he’s raising the terrorism alert and creating an emergency cabinet.
According to the Ministry of Health, we’ve reached the “breaking point” in an epidemic, and a pandemic is now inevitable. It should hit Spain in a matter of days, if it’s not here already. It happened so fast—just two weeks since it started. Judging from what the authorities have made public, it’s still not clear how the disease is transmitted or what the incubation period is, or even what the symptoms are.
People are scared shitless. Today I saw two people walking down the street wearing masks. I was in a bar last night with Pablo and Hector when a guy started coughing loudly and was politely asked to leave. Some public activities have been temporarily suspended. The local government here in Galicia is considering closing public schools for few weeks. The government has not put restrictive measures in place, but people are starting to restrict themselves out of fear of the unknown infection. We’re like animals, shrinking back in fear of a threat that a week ago was just a short piece in the newspaper.
My sister called me this morning. So far, life in Barcelona is going on as usual, but you can also sense fear on the streets. After rumors that hot air might be the ideal medium for spreading the disease, people quit using the subway. They eye everyone who looks Middle Eastern.
I took Lucullus to the vet. I got all his shots up to date, just in case. I also went by the dive shop to pick up a new regulator and a speargun and half a dozen spears, in case I decide to go fishing this weekend.
I need to get the car’s oil checked. My Astra’s not even a year old. I don’t want it to suffer the same fate as my previous car. But that’s really a long story…
ENTRY 13: BIRDS FALL FROM THE SKY
People are definitely starting to get nervous. This morning, the rain was falling in sheets. I left Lucullus licking his whiskers, nice and cozy next to a radiator. Fortunately I’d parked my car right in front of the house, or I would’ve gotten soaked. As I drove across town to work, I noticed a lot more people wearing masks. Maybe I should get one. Do they have masks for cats?
The news on the radio couldn’t be more confusing. For eighteen hours, there’s been no news of Dagestan. None. Not one word. What’s more disturbing: bad news or the complete lack of it?
Fires like the ones in Georgia are burning in several cities in southern Russia, and no one’s fighting them. The official story out of Russia is that the fires are mass cremations of bodies infected by the epidemic, but no one believes that. They’re too large. Visible from space! They’ve destroyed entire city blocks, fuel depots, and ports. There aren’t many, about a dozen, but they all started at about the same time.
The images of Germany are shocking. Highways are jammed with thousands of cars trying to leave the cities for the countryside, away from concentrations of people. However, only a small percentage has anywhere to go. Most people have stayed behind in the cities. They don’t seem to be panicking, but you can tell they’re worried. Martial law is in effect. Anyone out on the streets after 8:00 p.m. or outside rest areas on the highways will be shot dead, according to the German prime minister. They’re not joking around.
I’ve saved the biggest news for last. Official information is flowing out in dribs and drabs. In Brussels at nine this morning, the presidents of all the EU countries held an emergency meeting, together with the ministers of defense, health, and interior. They met until noon. When the meeting was over, they gave a joint press conference. That’s when they dropped the bomb. From now on, all official information will be channeled through a single crisis management team throughout the entire EU. This team will issue an official report hourly to all EU countries. Individual governments will make clarifications they deem necessary only on domestic policy, health, and safety. The armed forces of all EU countries have been put on alert. They emphasized that that was to avoid widespread panic. Contradictory and confusing reports have created unwarranted alarm, the consequence of which is a mass exodus. They’re referring to Germany, I guess.
That news gives me chills. Sounds dangerously close to censorship, right? The worst part was the faces of the prime ministers and presidents. They looked like they’d just come from a funeral. On TV, a political analyst said things must be pretty serious because as soon as the meeting was over, all the big shots headed straight for the airport and back to their countries. There’s a constant buzz that Spain’ll declare a state of emergency, like other European countries. For now, we’ve suspended all sports events this weekend “as a health precaution.”
The United States has called up the National Guard. What you see on the satellite channel is amazing— armed troops patrolling New York, Chicago, Boston, and so on. Those Americans are crazy. What’ll that accomplish? Scare the viruses? Are they going to shoot someone? They’re overreacting, as usual. Speaking of the United States, there seem to be sick people in Atlanta, Houston, and Los Angeles, but no one’s giving out any details or images. There are blackouts in the United States, too. All we know is that, over the last few hours, “vectors of contagion” have arrived on flights from Germany or the Middle East. The closure of all American airports is imminent. The news from around the world is more or less the same.
The troops we sent to Dagestan are back in Zaragoza. There are reports of a lot of minor injuries. Some may have been killed, but information is extremely limited. We do know they’ve cordoned off a floor at a civilian hospital to care for them.
I called my parents. They’re leaving Friday to spend the weekend in the little town where my grandparents
