It happened this week in a hospital in the Catalan Pyrenees. A family arrives at the hospital one afternoon with their son running a fever. The medical staff examine him and carry out tests and everything suggests that he has the coronavirus. The doctor questions the boy and his family: they arrived from the city where they live that same day and yes, it is indeed true that the child already had a fever and symptoms of the disease when he got into the car. It’s not hard to imagine how the family might have been anxious to reach their destination. They had rented and paid for a house in the country to have a few days' rest.
The doctor listens with surprise and, probably, irritation, at how they were capable of leaving the city after the Catalan government had advised people not to travel, given the expansion of the virus, and all the more so, having a child who was ill. His own situation is just the opposite, as he had already paid for a trip home to his own country and had to miss it due to the increase of patients in the hospital. His reflection might have been something like: there are still a lot of people who haven't learned anything.
From this Friday and over the weekend, hundreds of thousands of Catalans will begin to leave Barcelona and its metropolitan area for their summer resting place. I don’t know how many similar cases there will be, but we need to demand maximum responsibility from everyone. It is of little use to step out onto balconies every evening at 8pm for months to applaud doctors and health personnel for their efforts and dedication, if you then act like the people in this case did, so frivolously. The one thing we must not forget is that there is no better way to live with the virus than applying self-responsibility. Our maturity as a society and solidarity with our fellow citizens require this as a permanent exercise.