An intimate view of the city under lockdown

“The children aren’t strong on social distancing. The adults, across garden fences, have celebrated one birthday, one retirement, one discharge from hospital and the memory of one much-loved cat,” writes Peter McCarey in a poetic, but also literal, exploration of Geneva under the Covid-19 lockdown of the past few weeks, from which the city is now slowly emerging. The former WHO staff member, turned-poet, dances across the sweet notes of everyday routines, mixed with the bittersweet personal choices, and the tragic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The appearance of a new, and potentially lethal, virus was not unexpected among health experts, he observes: “In 2016, I convened a group of experts to discuss a pandemic I had invented, where people were turning into various species of plant,” recalls McCarey. As one colleague often reminded him: “it’s not a matter of WHETHER there’s going to be another flu pandemic, it’s WHEN.”