Only a fool would deny the absence of the notorious coronavirus. Soon a year, as this little bastard, not visible to the naked eye, like a sea urchin, brought the whole world to its knees.
However, let's not forget during the period of panic that has seized the country and about seasonal acute respiratory infections, ARVI, influenza, sore throat, as well as heart attacks, strokes, oncology, diabetes and other serious and chronic diseases.
But the easiest way is to catch up with fear, blame the death rate on covid - and no problem. Everything is sewn-covered.
And here's what's surprising: the waves of coronavirus activation miraculously coincide with seasonal respiratory diseases and the flu.
Judge for yourself: the first wave came in March, April, when the flu and all kinds of acute respiratory infections are traditionally raging, we are experiencing the second now.
But, I assure you, the third wave of coronavirus will come. It will cover us at the very end of December and will last all January. And then, again, March will come... and so on ad infinitum.
All this imposed hysteria, intimidation, violent demands for self-isolation of healthy people and, as a result, breaking all records of depression and mass psychosis, have created an unbearable and uncomfortable life in the capital.
But we are not zombies. We are still living people. We crave a breath of freedom and fresh air.
And as never before, the soul was drawn to the beautiful.
I wanted to visit museums, exhibitions, theater, opera. I wanted to wander slowly along the beautiful streets, admire the monuments of architecture, come into contact with the great, beautiful, eternal ...
Where can an unfortunate Muscovite, tortured by constant bans, intimidated by fines, locked borders during a pandemic that has not been officially announced, find all this?
That's right, in St. Petersburg.
Traveling to St. Petersburg has become for Muscovites akin to a joyful journey to the European capital, with the only difference that getting there is easier, no visa is needed and everyone speaks Russian.
But the most surprising thing is that in St. Petersburg everything is perceived differently. Only masks that people resignedly don in museums, theaters, concert halls remind of "martial law" in peacetime, but when they go outside, they are immediately removed: after all, scientists have proven that the virus cannot be transmitted in the air.
The rest is a wonderful miracle!
In fairness, I must say that at the beginning of this whole coronavirus bacchanalia, Governor Beglov, having watched the actions of the Moscow mayor Sobyanin, strongly shook the St. Petersburg hospitality industry, tightly closing museums, parks, restaurants, theaters ...
But the first wave subsided, the city began to shyly revive and, with its innate Petersburg intelligence, with dignity, without Moscow hysteria, observe all the recommended sanitary norms and rules.
It was then that I wondered if I should move to St. Petersburg for permanent residence?
But it was not there.
The governor decided to tighten the screws again and from December 30 to January 10, ban the work of cafes, restaurants, museums, theaters and concert halls. Consequently, hotels for this period will also not be in demand.
It is worth noting that this year the losses of St. Petersburg travel companies have already amounted to 80-85%, hotels - 70%, restaurants - 60%, theaters - up to 75%, museums and exhibition complexes - up to 65%, cinemas - up to 70%, event organizers ... almost 100% of last year's level.
North Palmyra is "quickly" approached a forced lockdown.
But, as they say, for whom the war, and for whom the mother is dear. Hotels, theaters, museums, restaurants, exhibitions, amazing cultural objects, which are based primarily on live communication, are bent before our eyes.
And in contrast, Internet delivery and all these artificially imposed delights of soulless online life began to gain momentum.
Internet commerce has become the main driver of market growth.
Many employees in the hotel and restaurant business have moved into sales. The most popular profession in our time is the profession of a courier, the demand for which has grown by 300%, and the salary ranges from 60 to 150 thousand rubles.
Only one virtual hypermarket "Utkonos" published financial statements, according to which revenue for the first quarter of 2020 increased by 34.5% and increased to 3.33 billion rubles.
Online education is gaining momentum. The number of registrations on only one of the portals in the first two weeks of quarantine increased by almost 650%.
An unprecedented leap has taken place in the IT field. And before this insane period, the IT services market, which did not complain of stagnation, was forced to accelerate during a pandemic. The intervention of IT specialists is required for outdated, barely working areas where online channels were previously not debugged.
The entertainment industry has also moved online.
For example, Netflix reported that video content turnover increased to $ 5.77 billion, which exceeded all projections. The number of visitors to the Kinopoisk website increased by over 50%, and Okko by 30%.
Interest in video games has increased. The demand for set-top boxes has doubled. Only one popular game brought its developers $ 190 million. This is five times more than earnings in previous years.
So, online stores, courier services, online education, IT companies, legal services dealing with business closings, job losses, use of credit cards and ... intimate goods make good money on the "pandemic"!
Well, what else to do in times of total lack of freedom and restrictions? Just eat, watch TV shows - and, I'm sorry ...
The mechanism has started.
We are being dragged into the funnel of a soulless digital online life, into this reservation, artificially separating us, forcibly tearing us apart. We were instilled with panic, and now we are already afraid to hug, shake hands, shy away from a man without a mask, have stopped visiting.
There is a complete reformatting of our entire life, which, apparently, will no longer be the same.
We have already been shown all the delights of digital online life. Online education, online medicine, online shopping, online marriage registration, online visits to museums, cinemas and theaters, and even church services and funerals are also online.
Under the guise of caring for our lives, we were deprived of the most important thing - life.
But it is not for nothing that St. Petersburg is the cradle of three revolutions. It seems that a new riot is brewing in St. Petersburg - "covid".
A "Resistance Map" has appeared in the city, the purpose of which is to oppose the coronavirus policy of the authorities, which have imposed severe restrictions on the work of public catering on New Year's and New Year's holidays.
By banning, closing, the authorities did not provide any support measures to the business.
43 restaurant establishments on Rubinstein, Zhukovsky, Nevsky, Liteiny challenged Smolny, refusing to obey the draconian decree.
In response, Smolny prepares to suppress the riot.
According to "Fontanka", from 4 to 6 December, Smolny officials in company with employees of Rospotrebnadzor and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region checked catering establishments, many of which were sealed because they did not close after 23.00.
After the inspectors left, the seals were torn off and a minute later the establishments resumed their work.
Restaurateurs are increasingly holding protest actions.
Smolny threatens to check for tax legislation.
He also states that "while doctors are saving lives, experiencing insane overload, some business representatives are violating the prohibitions." Well, and so on ...
How convenient it has become with the covid, you can always blame it and blame it.
Only mass infections do not come from restaurants, where seats have been halved. And not from museums, which can only be visited by groups of five masked people. And not in theaters, where the audience in the hall is 25%, and at the end of the performance, the artists can personally bow to each of them.
In addition, the population has less money for entertainment, and the sown fear of infection has borne fruit. He's great.
Perhaps the outbreak of infections in St. Petersburg did not come from museums or restaurants, but because of the concert of rapper Basta, who gathered a stadium of 13 thousand spectators, most of whom were without masks? Or crowded public transport?
Much effort has been expended to make St. Petersburg an attractive city for external and internal tourism.
As a result of this truly titanic work, this year St. Petersburg won the prestigious international World Travel Awards, an Oscar in the field of tourism, in the category "Leading Cultural Destination of the World 2020".
St. Petersburg has overtaken such powerful competitors as Paris, London, Rome, Venice, Sydney, New York, Kyoto, Rio de Janeiro and Beijing.
The cynical 121st decree is a stranglehold around the neck of a city choking with bans.
The city is closed without the introduction of an emergency regime, when the authorities are obliged to support the business, abandoned today to the mercy of fate.
These malicious and unjustified bureaucratic actions threaten to result in the death of the tourism business of St. Petersburg.
I can't get rid of the question: why? Why would it be so thoughtless and easy to destroy what was created with such difficulty?
And in response, I recall the imperishable "History of a City" by the great Saltykov-Shchedrin and a series of senseless and stupid mayors of the city of Glupov*...
* Glupov - ("glupiy" in Russian means "fool") - is a generalized city of the Russian Empire, invented by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and widely known in January 1869, after the publication of the first chapters of the story "The History of One City". In its inner life, the city resembles Roman policies, and the stupid city governors are comparable in self-determination and cruelty to emperors Nero and Caligula. On the contrary, the population is characterized by exceptional obedience and blind faith in the infallibility of power.