BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th December, 2020) As the world prepares for Christmas celebrations, governments in Europe have imposed strict restrictions on the number of people in attendance at Christmas parties, insisting on the family character of the occasion, as well as tight curfews, usually leaving two exceptions, on the night of December 24th and the last evening of the year.
The medical community, spearheaded by the World Health Organization, has been warning about the possible ramifications of people traveling and gathering together in closed spaces for long periods of time.
Back in November, Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO expert on epidemiology, called not having a family reunion the safest option, despite how difficult it could be.
But even that is sometimes not the case. In Brussels, the local authorities have decided that the curfew was kept in place: by 10 p.m. local time (21:00 GMT), everyone must be at home, with the exception of the Flanders and Wallonia regions, which allow residents to stay out until midnight.
The first celebration of the birth of Christ dates back to 336 when Christians were tasting the freedom of worship after the reforms of Emperor Constantine that allowed them to practice their faith openly after staying hidden for generations.
Throughout history, men had to celebrate the holiday under unenviable circumstances, such as in the trenches of World War I, when German and French or British or Russian soldiers forgot about fighting for a few hours. They put down their weapons, and sometimes even talked, played music and chanted with their enemies.
These scenes were repeated several times from Christmas 1914 to Christmas 1917. They came out of their trenches to fraternize for a magical evening. This, however, did not prevent them from resuming their bitter clashes the next day.
Much closer to us are the terrible winters of World War II, still remembered by some of our elders, especially in 1944 and 1945, both on the Eastern and Western fronts, with nothing to eat, no alcohol or wine available to forget your worries or the mourning of your family members killed.
Another Christmas worth remembering is 1969, when a new form of influenza, first detected in Hong Kong, arrived in Europe and caused a massacre during the winter of 1969 to 1970. France recorded 35,000 deaths in two months, which equals the first wave of COVID-19, with a smaller national population.
Some families did wear masks to limit the risk of contagion, but neither the authorities nor the media were concerned about that "temporary epidemic," as death was much more present in everyday life than it is now.
FEAR OF MASSIVE THIRD WAVE IN JANUARY
As the holidays approach, medical professionals are concerned about a major wave of COVID-19 cases in the first weeks after New Year, resulting from the end-of-year celebrations and a lack of following prevention measures, such as wearing masks, maintaining distance and washing hands.
"There is clearly a great risk that people will forget the barrier gestures, the champagne and alcohol helping and we know that the family circle is the most important place of contamination, with the office, where one meets colleagues in a closed space," Prof. Jean-Luc Gala, a virologist at the UCLouvain university in Belgium, told Sputnik.
The expert cited the spike of COVID-19 cases in the United States after Thanksgiving, saying it resulted in "a real tidal wave" of new cases. The professor went on to describe two epidemiological aspects of the Christmas celebrations.
"The first is positive: everyone has taken time off, schools are closed, restaurants and places of pleasure are closed, so no more contamination in the office and low mobility of people ... Contamination should decrease. And then the second phenomenon, negative, is the fact that everyone will find themselves in the family unit," Gala said, hoping that the two would cancel each other out.
There is hope that Christmas 2020 will be the last one in the middle of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccination campaigns are only beginning to unfold, starting with elderly citizens at nursing homes and medical staff. A large enough proportion of the population, about 70 percent, should be vaccinated by the end of summer 2021, making Christmas in�2021 better than in 2020.
