Day 35 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Hike To La Barillette.

Byrichard 19 April 202019 April 2020

Today I went for a Hike from La Barillette to La Barillette. It’s a shame that the restaurant wasn’t open to the public. It is currently marked as private, and scheduled to open on the first of May. Today I didn’t expect to do a long and physical hike. I expected to complete my usual daily tasks and then to go for the usual walks around where I live. In the end I did do such a hike, but it involved a slightly different geographic location.

The road to the top is currently closed to cars but sneaky motorbikes and cyclists can still head up the mountain. Plenty of cars were parked along the road by the first barrier. Instinctively I expected that we would see plenty of people walking up and down the road to La Dole but that wasn’t the case. The road was busy with cyclists.

Groups of up to five cyclists at a time headed up to the mountain. Some looked comfortable heading up, others looked okay, and some looked to be making an effort. I was surprised to see one person riding up that hill on a tandem and to see someone else ride up the hill on an electric bike pulling a child’s trailer. I couldn’t see a child in either the child seat or the trailer but that’s still quite a bit of extra weight to get up a mountain. Although that’s a nice distraction it isn’t the reason for this blog post.

Self-isolation means that we have to keep distant from other people but walking along paths with high traffic makes that complicated. For those with a little more energy and a lot of time the solution is to walk from the base of the Jura to the top. Initially the plan was to go up via the road but my curiousity got the better of me so I checked on Komoot to see whether I could take a side road up to the top and when I saw that this was possible I took advantage.

You follow the yellow and the Red and blue markers. We took one wrong turn so we had to scramble through some underbrush and climb up an even steeper incline. At least two or three trees have fallen across the path but they can all be avoided by going either side of them.

The trail is not used as frequently as others so navigation can sometimes be more challenging. It’s good to have some previous experience of navigating in this type of landscape. There are no sign posts and the red and blue and yellow markings are irregular. Without Komoot I would have explored more. I know that the aim is to reach the top, so from that aspect the goal is simple, but you could spend time wandering around without getting where you want to be.

During the walk you go from paths that are wide enough for cars to drive along where orienteering is easy to narrower paths where navigation is hard.

In Summer, when the restaurant is open this would be a good variant. I would have enjoyed having a fondue or Entrecôte at the top. As it so happens that’s my dinner, but prepared by myself rather than someone else.

For people who love flowers now is the ideal time to go up. You see plenty of these flowers growing in patches all over the top of the mountain. You need to go just as the snow finishes melting to see them at their best.

Less worried about the Virus.

By meeting up with someone to do an activity I went against my self-isolation rules. Two weeks ago when I was asked if I wanted to go for a bike ride I flatly said no. Now that the virus appears to be on the decline and that the number of cases is dropping I am being less aggressive about my self-isolation. I still give as much distance between myself and others. We also met using two scooters, rather than catching the same car. When I was asked if I wanted to stop for a coffee I had to say no.

People were having a big song and dance about how we shouldn’t call it social distancing because social distancing has negative connotations. Today I wanted to say yes, and I wanted to get back to normal but I couldn’t because the rules are still in place and we’re not in the clear yet. Let me point out that this is day 35 of not having a conversation within normal conversation distance, or of a handshake or a hug. It would be nice to be able to say yes to all of these things.

People, in big families, will never understand what living through a pandemic, is like for people living alone.When we get the green light to meet people again we should celebrate, not by going to a bar but by going on a hike.

That’s it for today.

environmental | social conscience

Day 34 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Daily Bike Ride

Byrichard 18 April 202018 April 2020

When the Pandemic was just starting I thought that this would be perfect for a daily bike ride and I was tempted to go to the mountains and to do other things. I didn’t though, because emergency services said “Don’t monopolise our resources getting injured because we may be required to help with the COVID-19 situation. Within three or four weeks they changed their statement to “if you need help we’re still here, our emergency services are still working as normal.

Last year I broke my arm on a day of Canicule and I spent at least four hours waiting to be seen. The wait was so long that I started to lose patience. When finally I was seen, and the break was confirmed the doctor was smiling, almost laughing. “Normally when people break their arm they can’t rotate their wrist”. It shows that despite my interior monologue being impatient during the wait my exterior monologue was polite and courteous to the point where a doctor was relaxed and good-humoured.

I didn’t want to repeat this experience during a pandemic. My other concern, and reason for not cycling was that if the chain broke I would have to walk home, get the car, and then return and get the bike. To call for help would be to break self-isolation for myself and someone else and I was unwilling to do this. That’s why I walked everywhere within range of home.

During the bike ride I saw a lot of cyclists but what was really interesting is that there were more bikes than cars on the roads, at least on the roads I rode along. It was also interesting to see how I was cycling past some people so quickly. It seems that walking every day for so many months has a beneficial effect. It’s also because I am not fatigued.

If you view “Flybys” you will see that plenty of people are active.

As people can’t go to the shops, can’t go to the mountains, have walked enough, and more we find that plenty of people are actively cycling. Usually when I look at flyby information I see four or five bikes at a time. Today the map lit up in a way I have never seen before. Twenty people cycling simultaneously in twos or threes.

I overheard someone ask “so do we go down or do we go straight across”. They were new to cycling in the region. As I was doing the cycling equivalent of HYOH (Hike your own Hike), Bike your own bike ride, BYOB, not to be confused with the beer/beverage version, I just continued exploring.

Today’s route was different than usual because I had three variables. The first variable was that I wasn’t allowed to leave the Canton De Vaud. The second variable was that I couldn’t go into France so my usual ride segments were out of the question. The third variable was to ensure that the ride was not too short. I accomplished all three of these goals.

I got five personal records during this ride, which isn’t bad and for one segment I was in the top 5.4 percent. it won’t change my life. I got that time on a segment I love to race cars down. It’s a straight road and the bike lane is downhill so it’s easy to go fast. What was unusual is that I was giving so much power, but without burning out. When I stopped pushing it was to coast, rather than because I flamed out.

Blocksite is a Chrome plugin to block specific websites.

I downloaded a Chrome extension to block Twitter and Facebook. Neither of these sites provides me with what I need during this pandemic so rather than delete my accounts, as I almost did this morning, I blocked them. If websites don’t bring joy block them. Good mental health, during a pandemic, especially when self-isolating alone is essential.

As I write this blog post we’re getting the first rain in over a month. Finally the rivers will be able to get their fill. Imagine if I had been caught in the rain during my bike ride. I love the sound of rain on the veluxes.

environmental | social conscience

Day 32 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Single Tab Open

Byrichard 16 April 202016 April 2020

I have a single tab open in Chrome at the moment, my main browser. This window, to write this blog post. We are now in Day 32 of self-isolation and I’m keeping myself distracted through blogging, making webpages mobile friendly and more. I’m also limiting the time I spend on news websites, social media and more. I have a five minute time limit on social media apps on my phones.

I wanted to write a Facebook post while on the escalators to go shopping but couldn’t because i was already up to the limit for today. Pandemics are funny because they end up being really boring. You can walk, you can run, you can river walk and you can cycle, but if you have technical issues you need to find a way home. You also need to creatively find routes that people are less likely to follow. People are discovering my snickets so I need to be more and more creative.

It would be so nice to get into the car and go somewhere but for now that idea is absurd. We have to wait for the right time. A few more weeks of nice weather and then, when the rain comes, we can start spending time outdoors again. I write this as a joke. It would suck if we did see that happen.

Coiffeurs, physiothérapeutes, jardineries et médecins seront autorisés à rouvrir leurs portes dès le 27 avril, a décidé jeudi le gouvernement.

Déconfinement coordonné et en trois étapes

From the 27th of April onwards people will be able to get their hair cut again, and to make it easier, people will be able to leave their children at kindergartens. On the 27th of April normal shops will be allowed to reopen and on the 11th of May children will go back to school. That’s if every step goes smoothly of course. In another article they mentioned that exams in Switzerland will be in August.

Poor teenagers, spending their summer holidays studying for exams. Does this mean they will head to university a month later?

When speaking with a neighbour/teacher two days ago he told me that some children and their parents went to secondary homes in France and other questions so the question is how will they get from their secondary homes back to Switzerland in order to start lessons on the required day? Is returning to Switzerland seen as a legitimate reason to drive over big distances?

Un été blanc et sec attend les festivaliers

Annulations Historique! Paléo, Montreux Jazz, Caribana, la Cité… Les grands rendez-vous prévus d’ici fin juillet devraient tirer la prise de leur édition 2020.

No festivals this summer

This summer may be one of the quietest in decades or even centuries. There is a chance that all of the music festivals will be cancelled for this summer. In one article I read that, if so many countries are still in lockdown then it isn’t worth going on a tour, as a band for just a few gigs.

The risk of forest fires is now severe enough for fires to be banned.

Although it feels like we’re nearing the end of the pandemic we can see that it’s still a month or more away, so our current lifestyle will have to be resilient enough to carry us through.

Time for a walk. See you later.

environmental | social conscience

Day Twenty-Nine of ORCA in Switzerland – A Desire To Go On A Hike

Byrichard 13 April 202013 April 2020

We’re in day 29 of ORCA in Switzerland and I have an ever increasing desire to go for a hike. During today’s walk I listened to two podcasts about hiking and I walked yet another variant of my usual walk. Apple tree blooms are increasing in number and the Colza looks almost ready to harvest.

We’re also going into a dry summer. During this pandemic we have hardly had any rain for a month. The whole of Switzerland is either yellow, orange or red with the risk of fire. I’ve been walking outdoors with a t-shirt.

We could be under the illusion that Switzerland has beaten the virus but that’s an illusion, because the risk of a new center of contagion is possible. We have to continue self-isolating. Today two children cycled too close to me so I crossed to the opposite side of the road because they stopped and would pass me again.

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@ladylockoff had some fun photo shopping this picture of @marcusblatherskite and I. It reminds me of a similar picture that our friend Matt photo shopped. When I posted Matt’s ball pit bouldering photo my poor mother thought it was real and asked me how long it took to clean up all those balls. ????? Good times. 1rst photo by @ladylockoff 2nd photo by @matt_likes_climbing #climbingphotography #climbing_photos_of_instagram #climbinginspiration #climbing #climbinglovers #climbinggirls #climbing_is_my_life #climbing_worldwide #climbingrocks #climbingnation #climbinglife #outdoorclimbing #crackclimbing #tradclimbing #climbingpicturesofinstagram #iloveclimbing #climbing_pictures_of_instagram #climbingpics #rockclimbing #rockclimbinglife #climbon #liveclimbrepeat #climbingisbliss #climbingnation #climbingday #doyouclimb #rockclimber #climberlife

A post shared by Mary Catherine Eden (@tradprincess) on Apr 12, 2020 at 7:55pm PDT

environmental | social conscience

Day Twenty-eight of ORCA in Switzerland – A Photo Walk

Byrichard 12 April 202012 April 2020

Today I went on a photo walk. Since walking far is now out of the question if you want to be consistently socially distanced it makes sense to go out with a different purpose. When the purpose of the walk is to take photos you can afford to walk up a hill, or between two people to avoid being too close.

A cat naps in a courtyard in the middle of the day during the 2020 Pandemic in Arnex-Sur-Nyon.

When I passed by the barn where cats love to spend time I found at least two of them having their afternoon siesta. Sometimes at this barn you can find quite a few of them.

Motorway traffic was quite dense today. People were apparently choosing to drive from one point to another. We will see what the impact of this public holiday will be on the number of new cases one to two weeks from now.

This weekend plenty of people were walking along agricultural roads and as you can see they’re walking two to three abreast. These are single lane agricultural roads so if I had been walking along these roads I would have come within two meters of many people.

I really wish that during the pandemic people would have the same decency as hikers on narrow paths. That decency is to walk in single file, and to allow people enough space to pass safely. I look forward to when I can walk my ordinary paths, without worrying about passing too close to people.

Aside from having the pandemic as a reason to avoid large groups such as in the picture above I think another motivation is to avoid the feeling of loneliness that some of us could feel. Tomorrow will be week six without human contact for many of us. No hand shakes, no conversation closer than a meter and a half. No break from the solitude of a pandemic.

Solitude is when you’re alone living as usual. lonely is when you’re reminded of what you’re missing and you pine for something that you may not really need. When the order is to stay two or more meters away from people for one and a half months seeing other people with the company of another person is already sub-optimal. Imagine seeing a crowd of up to five people.

I started compiling a collection of hiking documentaries on Youtube. One of them is a hike from Switzerland to the mediterranean and the others are hikes in the United States. It may seem paradoxical that after so much walking I would be thinking of walking even more but I love the idea of walking for a few days and seeing different places. I like the idea of leaving civilisation for a while.

There’s a good chance that rock climbing, via ferrata and other sports will not be possible for at least a few weeks so it makes sense to think about things we can do alone or in small groups. Maybe this will be the year when I do at least one variant of the Via Alpina. We will see, once the pandemic has run its course.

Camera used to take pictures

environmental | social conscience

Day Twenty-Five of ORCA in Switzerland – The Passing Of A Friend

Byrichard 9 April 202010 April 2020

Today I learned of the passing of a friend, due to complications after struggling to beat cancer. I was made ready for the news today by a post that he was very sick yesterday. I didn’t know the details at the time. It was one of the first posts I saw on Facebook this morning.

I would go to one of the local pubs and talk with the friend. We were studying on the same course and he worked at the bar so the pub became my living room. As I spent time at the bar I got to know the regulars, but I also got to know the town. I felt that I did know quite a few people well. If life had been different I would have stayed in Weymouth for the summer after the course and spent the summer diving.

Aside from having a pub to visit daily, and a place to read all the newspapers, (pre-smartphone days) he also spoke about martial arts films so I borrowed and watched plenty of Chinese and Hong Kong martial Arts films. It’s becaue I watched such a multitude of Martial arts films that I found Kill Bill such a mediocre film. The editing is too tight and is used to disguise that they are not martial artists.

Busy Shops For The First Time

Today I went to the shops at lunchtime hoping that they would be quiet but I found that the queue was so long that I aborted. When I went to see another shop I found that it too was busy. The queue went for a distance out of the shopping centre. In such a situation I see no logical reason to go to the shops. I’d rather avoid being in the same space as a crowd.

After over a year of thinking about it I finally went to the village shop but the selection was mediocre. It may be as useful as a petrol station shop, rather than a proper alternative to bigger shopping centres.

Public Holidays During a Pandemic

I question the rationale of having public holidays during a pandemic. People can’t do anything, can’t go anywhere and shouldn’t meet up In light of all these limitations I also question the wiseness of having people shopping en masse, to get food for a long weekend, when it runs the risk of spreading the virus.

I went to the shops to get a chocolate rabbit, but a chocolate rabbit is not worth falling sick for.

Surprised by the British

Recently I read Ravenrock, an interesting book looking at how the US had prepared to get the president and essential safe safely into bunkers within minutes in case of nuclear war. They were ready with several contingencies should the need crop up.

With the British PM falling sick, and upon hearing that there is no formal plan for when he’s sick I am surprised. I would expect England to be at least as prepared as the US in terms of succession but apparently this isn’t the case. It’s odd.

Before 17 Mar 2020, we estimate the basic reproduction number R0R0 of COVID-19 at 2.73 (95% confidence interval, CI: 2.42 – 3.12). Transmission decreased with the strengthening of social distancing measures by 78% (95% CI: 66%-90%). This resulted in an effective reproduction number ReRe = 0.59 (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.36 – 0.89). Based on these estimates, we can project the future epidemic trajectory for the coming weeks (Figure).

Social distancing works and Switzerland has been able to quantify it’s effectiveness. Before the 17th of March 2020 the RO number of COVID-19 was 2.73 in Switzerland. After social distancing was enacted the RE number is of 0.59%. It has cut the risk of infection by a factor of five. Put another way before social distancing an infected person could infect up to three people through interacting with them. With social distancing there’s half a chance that a single person will infect another. The report is here.

environmental | social conscience

Day Twenty-Four of ORCA in Switzerland – The Smell of Colza

Byrichard 8 April 20208 April 2020

Today I walked along roads that would be filled with non-stop traffic if we weren’t in a pandemic. As a result I could enjoy almost the entire walk without avoiding people. In the process I passed by colza fields, an open garden centre and more. The image above is of a colza field, looking towards the lake, the Alps and the Mont Blanc.

I like that flower shops stayed open during the pandemic because it would have been a shame for all those flowers to have been left in the shop to die and become compost without being enjoyed. It’s not that I’m a flower person, but rather that flowers perish, so finding a way to sell them safely makes sense. It also offers moral support for those that need it.

During this pandemic I have hardly used Youtube. It takes so much effort not to watch videos without sensationalist titles that I’ve skipped the network for the most part. I did find some interesting content. The video below is a flight over Petra as a 360 video at 8K resolution. It is worth watching, even if you don’t have a 360 headset.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSiv4TkfSOE

I see people encouraging encouragement to people spending this lockdown in families but I don’t think that spending time with family in a lockdown should be seen as hard or difficult. In fact I think it would be exhausting but it should also be really fun. With to to four year olds you keep them entertained and you keep them entertained. Look at what Jimmy Kimmel and his children got up to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0xSdI72ZnQ

Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, Family edition

It’s worse for those of us in solitude. Imagine if the only way for you to socialise was to look at your company and visit social media websites like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Wordpress or others. They’re filled with impersonal sensationalist content that really does nothing to make you feel happy and content. Social media has not been the parachute that I hoped it would be.

The problem with social media during a pandemic is that you can’t take a break from the pandemic. It’s either pandemic or pandemic. There’s no other topic to read about. I mention this because i just took a break of sorts to watch this joke of sorts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5CNHDeF2xA

For a few seconds I was relaxed, refreshed and thinking of other things. I then made the mistake of coming back to twitter and it’s nothing but pandemic talk. I don’t want pandemic talk every second I use Twitter and Facebook, as bizarre as this may seem.

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Why the three meter rule? A simple explanation.

A post shared by Richard Azia (@richardazia) on Apr 8, 2020 at 8:32am PDT

environmental | social conscience

Day Twenty-Three of ORCA in Switzerland – The Chernobyl Fire

Byrichard 7 April 20207 April 2020

In normal times a forest fire in the Chernobyl exlusion zone would attract attention and environmentalists would actively speak about it. The world would pay attention. Due to the pandemic the news story is low on the agenda.

I mentioned that a coffee shop and a pet shop had reopened on Monday and this morning I read that markets would be allowed to take place. Instead of the usual 160 stands, there would be just 30. In articles When reading other articles I saw that there was a mention that in order to be more confident that the virus was slowing down there would have to be zero transmissions for 14 days or more. We are still far from that today.

A gradual decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases in Switzerland

I’d rather sacrifice for two or three weeks now and preserve summer, than be too hasty, and lose the advantage we seem to have at the moment.

Click the image to read that story from Radio lac. According to Dider Pittet, speaking on RTSInfo we would need two and a half million masks per day to protect people in Switzerland alone. On a global scale many more masks would be needed.

Phone Addiction

Of course during this period when people are stuck at home, unable to socialise in person they are meant to turn towards the phone and use messaging and social media apps to share news with friends and family. Some people use this as an opportunity to say that people are all the more addicted to their phones than before.

I find the opposite is true. Yesterday I forgot my phone at home when I went for a walk and I could easily have gone back upstairs to get it but I didn’t because A) I didn’t need it and B) my walk was going to be short.

I should go for a walk now but I can’t really be bothered. I don’t want to avoid people. I don’t want to overcome my fear of dogs. I would love for this pandemic, so that I could try something different. I’d like to go for a bike ride but if I do that I need to be careful not to stray too far and I still need to avoid people.

The main reason for going out is to get some sunshine.

For exercise I have Zwift.

if you need a reason to stay indoors and to self-isolate watch the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuzP-uLctYE&feature=youtu.be

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Day Twenty-Two of ORCA in Switzerland – The Company of Cats

Byrichard 6 April 20206 April 2020

Today during my walk this afternoon I surprised a cat on some stairs and I moved patiently. It brushed up against me so I started to stroke it. During this pandemic the only living things I have had physical contact with are cats. During a pandemic, if you’re not living with people, you are very limited.

Yesterday I did go out for a bike ride with a group of people, virtually. Before the ride I was feeling really down, and negative. After the ride I was feeling refreshed and relaxed. For the first time in three weeks I was able to do something physical without having to avoid people, worry about routing or anything else. All I had to do was pedal to the limit of my motivation and endurance.

If we went into full lock down then I would treat it as if we were in winter. I’d train hard, on the indoor trainer, so that when we are finally allowed more freedom in the outdoors I’d be fit enough to explore new routes.

The Shopping situation

When I went to the shops they were the emptiest I’ve seen them in a long time. I didn’t even need to queue to get in, although I did have a brief moment of over-exaggerating my steps as I was behind people walking slower than me. Everyone, or almost, walks slower than me, so that’s not a criticism of the people ahead of me. It’s good for you. You can use entirely different muscle groups as you behave in an eccentric manner. Even the self-checkout was empty, just one other person.

Of course in the process I forgot to buy plain rice so now I’m going to have to cook with wild rice today. I think playing the COVID-19 lottery, by going to the shops once a day, is risky enough. Wild rice is meant to be healthier anyway.

A Slow Down In New Cases

According to the figures I see, and articles in the press, it seems that the Pandemic has reached a plateau and we may be able to feel optimistic about the end coming in two or three weeks. Of course we have to be wary. With good weather more people are going out to enjoy the conditions, and the likelihood of another flareup is high if people are not careful.

Having said this I saw a tweet that the Canton De Vaud judiciary is going to start work again today, I saw that a shop selling coffee was open again and that a pet shop was open again too. These could be seen as signs, that more people are optimistic that things are improving.

Societal Change

I see that people are discussing whether society will have changed when this is all over and I believe that it will not have because of two key reasons. The first is that the wealthy, those with the power to effect change, will not have suffered like those that do not have the power to effect change. As a result many things will remain the same.

The second factor is rate of infection. When China was infected every other nation on earth had the opportunity to react, but as we see, after Italy was infected, no societies changed. Switzerland, France, Spain, The United Kingdom and the United States did not change.

It took governments saying “stay home, and self-isolate” for people to take action. To me this is a clear sign that the societal change people idealise is just that, an ideal.

Update: Victorian England was afraid of germs and diseases, which is why they wore white gloves and tried to keep their homes clean. The problem is that the paint they used to cover their walls was poisoning them, as was makeup and other elements of everyday life.

Side Effect

I have seen the headline in French and English that according to some people, the earth is less seismically active than usual. As none of the reputable news services have written about this story I am seeing it as just a curiousity, rather than something serious. It’s more likely that with less traffic, whether cars, trucks or planes, that seismometers, may detect less background noise.

In theory now would be the perfect time to have the LHC running, as there is less background noise.

environmental | social conscience

Day Nineteen of ORCA in Switzerland – TGIF

Byrichard 3 April 20203 April 2020

Do you have that TGIF feeling like no one else does? In theory today is the day when people are happy, knowing that the weekend is about to start and they can do the things they love for the next two days. In this context though, that is unlikely. We’re meant to stay home.

This weekend is going to be extra special because the temperature is meant to reach 20°c, i.e. summer temperatures and so people will go out like ants on an applecore by the side of the road. If ever a weekend was likely to see a boom of cases next Friday it’s this one. According to the Swiss government people are good at following the rules but I still see examples of inconsiderate behaviour, both by young and not so young people.

Google has come up with the Google COVID-19 Mobility report. You may already be familiar with the discussion centered around how governments are asking telecom operators to provide them with mobile phone information about where and whether people are gathering.

Telecom operators, and application makers already have some information of where we are, where we’re gathering, how often we’re commuting and more. Google is making that data available in reports by countries. As I was curious to see this data I looked up Switzerland and then Geneva and Vaud.

The beauty of this data is that it shows the lag between the time people were told to stay home and when they did. It’s also to see where the peaks for parks, pharmacies and transit were. Last week we read about how the CFF are reducing the number of trains running. Today I was listening to the Don’t Touch Your Face episode discussing “The Airline Industry crashes“.

It’s interesting to think about transportation. Geneva is a city, and for a walker like me everything is within walking distance, if I have enough time. Vaud is larger so people are more used to using the car. This may explain why Vaud has a 68 percent drop in public transport use whereas Geneva has an 84 percent drop. Retail and recreation dropped by almost the same amount.

It’s interesting to compare Greater London with Geneva and Vaud because we see that the curves for transit and retail are more gradual, more rounded. The graphs suggest that Londoners started self-isolating of their own accord, and so when the order was given by the government to do so there was no great change. Of course the timescale is different so this might explain the softer change.

To some degree this pandemic is interesting because of all the data we can collect. Between blogs, instagram feeds, tweets, Facebook updates, mobile phone movements and more we really get a granular look at how the pandemic has affected people’s movements and habits.

During the post-pandemic discussions, studies and reports there will be millions of data points for people to study. Data analysts are going to have fun. So are big-data historians. This is a unique opportunity to see what worked, how long it took to be effective and more.

It’s a shame that Facebook and Twitter are so filled with marketers and PR professionals, rather than conversationalists. We’re going to have to see what remains of individual interactions later.

Do you have any interesting graphs or metrics to share?