I am telling my American friends how we are quarantined and how, if security measures are not followed, you can get a fine at best. They laugh, they say that the Russians are much stronger than other nations, because we have to face a lot of trials, we are always ready for everything.

They also say that they haven’t yet, and even seem to enjoy this. In New York and New Jersey, potential carriers of the virus continue to walk around nonchalantly. Like, "if it were necessary, the authorities would impose full quarantine, cities would be closed."

And do not explain to them that quarantine and the ban on entry / exit were not introduced only because Trump initially embellished the truth, underestimated the number of infected people, decided not to intimidate and warn Americans, but rather “give them hope and show the light at the end of the tunnel” (these are all his quotes, not my guesses). The same New York remained open to visitors, only because the country's economy depends on it.

In the end, it seems that this cowardice and the promise of a happy end played a cruel joke with Trump - none of the population took the threat of coronavirus seriously. I didn’t take it as it should have. The country simply turned out to be unprepared for such an influx of patients: lack of medicines, protection for doctors, products ...

And while the authorities still continue to embellish, instead of starting to sound the alarm. With coronavirus, you need to be proactive, you need to focus on the experience of other countries, as we did. Procrastination cost Americans the lives of people - now the number of cases in America has already exceeded the number of people infected in China. But, fearing primarily for the economy, and not for life, the US president decided to leave everything as it is. He is satisfied with the number of deaths from the virus - from 100 to 240 thousand people. He humbled himself and indicated, but did not prepare to fight.

The situation in India is even worse, where, for example, “white” tourists are blamed for the virus. In some cities, visitors were even barricaded in buildings, hotels, they were not allowed to go out, they left a small hole for carrying food.

Despite the fact that we had a head start, the virus came to us a few weeks later than in other countries, we pass the stages of perceiving what is happening on the contrary faster. We denied, panicked, eventually reconciled and got used to it. If in the early days it was not clear how to live on and “what if it will always be like this now”, now it’s nothing.

Man is a living creature and adaptable. Having lived like this for several days, a week, you understand that you can, it’s no longer scary.

The whole world is obliged to live by the new rules, but very few are ready for this new reality. It's like in a classroom where there are pontorezas, daredevils, bullies, nerds ... But at the moment of a really important exam it becomes clear who is who. Russia sent humanitarian aid to China, the USA, Russian specialists help Italians.

But the most important thing that the Russian authorities did was to put in place precautionary measures within their own country on time, they did not wait and hope for the same Russian chance. Education of the population began in advance, warnings about social contacts in advance, began to prepare in advance for the influx of patients into the clinic.

Again, as my American friends say: “Russians do not allow coronavirus.” Exactly.

The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.