Pandemic: the beginning of the end

This Sunday will go down in our little particular history as the day when we all had the feeling that the end of the pandemic nightmare was closer, that we were beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The recovery of night-time mobility and the opening of bars and restaurants until 11pm represent a before and after since 29 October, in the middle of the second wave, when a six-month state of alarm was approved in Parliament. Since then there has been a third wave, while the fourth has been kept at bay.

And unlike the summer, now the acceleration of the pace of vaccination does suggest that this easing of restrictions may be definitive. In any case, the gradual reconquest of the freedoms taken away by the virus must also help us all to recover our vital tone, our social interaction, our joie de vivre that was denied to us for moments during the hardest moments of the pandemic.

This resumption will also serve to push the economy upwards, to boost consumption, to breathe life into the small businesses that have suffered so much, so that companies can make the investments that until now have been at a standstill. All this activity must also help to rebuild confidence in the future, which has been seriously affected by the pandemic.

Despite this, we have to be very aware that covid-19 has not disappeared, it is still with us and will still affect many people until we can really defeat it. That is why it is important to respect as much as possible all the indications of the health authorities, for example, the meeting limit of 6 people. We must think that today's is the first step of a process that will be extended in time and that must allow us not to take steps backwards.

Taking advantage of the optimism in the streets today, it is also a good time to look back and remember the stories and lessons learned from the pandemic. And there is no better way to do this than by compiling the testimonies of patients who have overcome the disease and who, moreover, along the way have ended up strengthening ties with their doctors and carers. This doctor-patient relationship is one of the most beautiful things that the pandemic has left us: the stories of the patients' overcoming of the disease combined with the unbribable commitment of the health staff and the human factor that friendship represents.

We cannot lose sight of the enormous suffering from which we have come, and which should make governments around the world reflect on what the priorities should be in the post-pandemic period. And to all of us about the fragility of lives that we thought were safe and secure until covid-19 appeared.