The Daily Signal - What Life in Madrid Under Lockdown Is Like

Episode Date: March 17, 2020

Spain is one of the European countries struggling to stop the spread of coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. Right now, Madrid is on lockdown: Residents can't leave their homes unless it's for something essential, such as getting medicine or food. You can't take walks for no reason. Only one person per household is allowed to go to the grocery store, to cut down on crowding and contact. Police enforce these measures and fine violators. Kate Trinko's sister, Therese Trinko, a high school teacher in Madrid, shares what it's like, what she's hearing from the Italians she knows, and how Spaniards are keeping their spirits up. We also cover these stories: President Trump suggests the coronavirus pandemic could last into the summer. More states close restaurants, bars, and other businesses. Some European nations are tightly restricting their borders. The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, Apple Podcasts, Pippa, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, March 17th. I'm Rachel Del Judas. And I'm Kate Trinko. So for the next few weeks, the Daily Signal is going to be remote because we are trying to practice social distancing and stop the spread of the coronavirus. So we're using our laptops from our homes with remote mics. And unfortunately, that does mean that the sound quality may not be as great as it has been. But we know that you understand the need to keep everyone in our community. communities as safe as possible during this situation. We hope that all of you are doing okay right now.

And please remember to check in on friends, family, neighbors who are older or who might be especially vulnerable to the coronavirus. Please, if you're able, offer to help them with groceries, prescription pickups, all that kind of stuff to keep them safe. So for today's episode, we're going to speak to my sister, Teresa Trinco. She's a teacher in Spain, where they are basically on complete lockdown right because of the coronavirus. She's going to tell us what life is like there and how Spaniards are dealing. And don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Now onto our top news. President Donald Trump held a press conference Monday to discuss the latest measures to contain

the spread of the coronavirus via the White House Twitter account. We'd much rather be ahead of the curve than behind it, and that's what we are. Therefore, my administration is recommending that all Americans, including the young and healthy, work to engage in schooling from home when possible, avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people, avoid discretionary travel, and avoid eating and drinking at bars, restaurants, and public food courts. If everyone makes this change or... are these critical changes and sacrifices now. We will rally together as one nation, and we will defeat the virus, and we're going to have a big celebration all together.

Trump also discussed that the coronavirus pandemic could continue until well into the summer, VSE span. Mr. President, a lot of people are concerned about how long all of this might last. Do you have any kind of estimate that if Americans really were to ban? together and do what the White House is suggesting. How quickly you could turn this point? My favorite question I ask it all the time. How many times, Anthony, I think I ask them that question every day, and I speak to Deborah. I speak to a lot of them. I get the opinion. So it seems to me that if we do a really good job,

will not only hold the death down to a level that is much lower than the other way had we not done a good job. But people are talking about July, August, something like that. So it could be right in that period of time where I say it washes through. Other people don't like that term, but it washes through. President also addressed the stock market, which had another terrible day, Monday, also via C-SPAN. The stocks continue to fall today. Would the one have to support negative rates?

The best thing I can do for the stock market is we have to get through this crisis, that's what I can do. That's the best thing we can do. That's what I think about. Once this virus is gone, I think you're going to have a stock market like nobody's ever seen before. The Supreme Court is pausing all oral arguments that were scheduled for March due to the coronavirus pandemic in announcement on Monday. A spokeswoman for the High Court said that the choice to set a pause on forthcoming oral arguments, which delays six days of oral arguments. scheduled for March through April 1st, was per the Hill, in keeping with public health precautions and response to the outbreak, which has infected 18 people in Washington, D.C., and more than 3,800

nationwide. The spokeswoman added that the court will examine the options for rescheduling those cases in due course in light of the developing circumstances. Dr. Jerome Adams, the Surgeon General, told CNN Monday that the U.S. could potentially become the next Italy. Here's what he had to say. We're at a critical inflection point. We have the same number of cases now that Italy had two weeks ago, and we have a choice to make. Do we want to really lean into social distancing and mitigation strategies and flatten the curve, or do we just want to keep going on with business as usual and end up being Italy? We're constantly in the task force meetings looking at the new information that comes out each day in responding. And what you heard from

Dr. Fauci, and what you've been hearing from me is an urgency in regards to the need for us to social distance and the need for us to really make sure we're leaning into basic public health measures like hand washing, like staying away from people who are sick, like cleaning your surfaces. Do you think we can become Italy? I think you've got several different models, and yes, there is a potential for us to become Italy. Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney is floating the idea of giving every American adult

in the United States $1,000 to help offset the economic turbulence brought on by the coronavirus. On Saturday, the House passed a coronavirus relief package that the Senate took up on Monday, but Romney says there is more to do. In his statement, he said, We also urgently need to build on this legislation with additional action to help families and small businesses meet their short-term financial obligations, ease the financial burden on students entering the workforce, and protect health workers. on the front lines and their patients by improving telehealth services. Romney added, Every American adult should immediately receive $1,000 to help ensure families and workers can

meet their short-term obligations and increase spending in the economy. Congress took similar action during the 2001 and 2008 recessions. While expansions of paid leave, unemployment insurance, and SNAP benefits are crucial, the check will help fill the gap for Americans that may not quickly navigate different government options. Closures continue across America. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, tweeted Monday. New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey are taking joint regional action to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Effective 8 p.m. tonight.

Crowd capacity reduced to 50. Restaurants bars will be take-out delivery only. Jim's closed. Movie theaters closed. casinos closed. Maryland is also closing down most businesses. Here's what Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, said Monday via the Baltimore Sun. At the advice of senior government leaders and security leaders

and the top doctors and scientists across the state, we have made the decisions to take the following unprecedented immediate actions in order to protect public health and safety. I have just enacted an executive order to shut down all bars, restaurants, movie theaters, and gyms across the state, effective at 5 p.m. today, while allowing drive-through, carry-out, and food delivery service to continue. Following updated CDC guidelines, we are prohibiting any social, community, religious, recreational, sports gatherings, or events of more than 50 people in close proximity. proximity at all locations, establishments, and venues all across Maryland. These emergency orders carry the full force of the law and will be strictly enforced. We have activated 250 Maryland State Police Troopers of the Mobile Field Force who are ready

for deployment. As we said on Thursday, essential services such as grocery stores, food delivery, pharmacies, gas station, banks, and other essential services need to remain open. Hogan also said, per the sun, we should continue to expect the number of cases to dramatically and rapidly rise. This is going to be much harder, take much longer, and be much worse than almost anyone is currently understanding. Countries in Europe, including Germany, Spain, and Hungary, are closely restricting their borders in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus.

According to BBC, three of Germany's neighbors, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Denmark, have already closed their borders or introduced severe restrictions. With people worried about the coronavirus, it's not just hand sanitizer and toilet paper that people are stocking up on. The Los Angeles Times reports that gun sales are going up. The Times writes, Gun sales are surging in many U.S. states, especially in those hit hardest by the coronavirus, California, New York, and Washington. But there's also been an uptick in less affected areas,

with some first-time gun buyers, fearing an unraveling of the social order, and some gun owners worried that the government might use its emergency powers to restrict gun purchases. Donald Trump Jr. tweeted over the weekend, The irony of it all is that it's my Democrat friends reaching out to me now, asking me which guns they should buy just in case, in particular which ARs. I guess they're okay with the Second Amendment now? You don't need it till you need it.

Next up, we'll have my interview with my sister, Teresa, about being a teacher in Spain and what it's like there. It's because of support. from listeners like you that we can continue to produce podcasts like Heritage Explains and SCOTUS 101. And you can help us keep it up by going to www.org.com slash podcast today to make your tax-ded deductible gift. Right now, Spain is one of the European countries taking severe measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus. According to CNN, Spain has over 9,000 cases of the coronavirus and over 300 deaths so far, making it one of the European nations most affected currently.

Joining us today is my sister, Terese Trinco. She is a high school teacher in Spain, and she lives in Madrid, which is currently under lockdown. Teresa, thanks for coming on and daring to talk to your big sister. Thank you. I get credit for this one. Absolutely. So I want to get into what life under the lockdown is like. But first, why did you move to Spain and when?

Well, I moved to Spain right after college five and a half years ago because I wanted to be a Spanish teacher and realized to properly teach Spanish, I needed to be completely fluent. And so I needed to just move to a Spanish-speaking country. So that's why I came here and then I stayed because I love it. And why did you pick Spain as your Spanish-speaking country to go to? Honestly, because I got a job here first. I was looking in Argentina, Spain, Central America, and the first school to get back to me was a school in Spain.

So I was like, perfect. That's it. So, as you said, you've lived in Spain for over five years now, which is kind of crazy. What are some of the big differences between life and Spain and the U.S.? I would definitely say the general culture, like social culture, as in the U.S., I know from a lot of my friends' experiences, that it's a lot of go to work, go home, watch TV, go to bed, repeat. And in Spain, it's much more of a culture of you work so that you can enjoy yourself. And so people, like, every day will go out for like tapas or go to the bars or go to the park and have a picnic or whatever. and I really like that it's, you know, social life is an everyday activity.

One of the other differences that I know you've mentioned to us that it's very different between Spain and most of the U.S. Is that in Spain, a lot of people live in apartments. They don't live in houses. It's much denser, right? Absolutely. Even in, like, small town, like obviously in the center of any city in the world, most people live in apartments. But even if you go to, like, villages and small towns, most everyone lives in apartments. which is nice and most of the time, but it's not great under quarantine.

Right. That's what I was thinking. So speaking of the quarantine of the lockdown, what is that like in Madrid right now? What does that mean? Basically, we can't leave our houses unless it's something really important, such as going to the grocery store or going to the pharmacy or if you need to work or you need to take care of somebody, then you can leave. But otherwise, you can't. And so it's basically all of us are just stuck in our apartments until this ends. A lot of us working from home. But it's weird experience. So you can't just take a walk outside if you want some fresh air or if your dog needs to walk. Or how are situations like that handled? You cannot walk just because you want to go for a walk, which is, you know, that's a cultural thing.

There's a special type of word. There's a special word in Spanish pass yard for like going for a nice long walk. and we cannot do that here. They said basically it's a very hazy interpretation of the law right now, but it seems that you can take your dog out, but just for a very, very short walk and very near your house, and the police have to determine if the length and distance from your house is appropriate for that, but you definitely cannot go out with somebody else.

You can't go without with your children. It's very, this has to be an urgent situation. Right. And you said if you're going to the grocery store, like you can't go with your fiance, you have to go by yourself. It has to be only one person, right? Yeah, one person per household can go on any of these things. And I think part of the idea that is, you know, fewer people going, less contact. So I know that you're stuck inside the apartment right now, but are policemen patrolling the streets? Like, would it be likely that you would run into a policeman or do you have any idea? So the official, we will start finding you if you were outside without a good reason, started to,

day. But the recommended quarantine of basically do it, but we're not finding you yet, started on Saturday. And two of my coworkers have texted our group chat and been like, yeah, I was outside on a bike ride and two cops stopped me and I lied and said I was going to the grocery store or a woman who was walking her dog who said that she was stopped and said she had to return home that she wasn't allowed to run with the dog. And yesterday I was looking out from our balcony and saw the cops stop a homeless man who was sitting on a bench doing nothing, obviously, and tell him he had to leave that he couldn't stay where he was. I mean, they have homeless shelters obviously available this time,

but even the homeless can't just stay outside right now. And what are the penalties if you were outside for no good reason? It's a fine. I'm not 100% sure. I feel like it's like 600 to 1,000 euro, but it's basically, you do not want it if they actually do find you. So as you alluded, like this wasn't as strict on Saturday. This began gradually.

I think you were still going to work at the beginning of last week, right? Yeah. Monday, last Monday was business as usual. Like we'd heard rumors that, you know, Italian schools had closed and there were some parts who were under quarantine and obviously we heard about China. And then some people were saying it was going to happen here in Madrid. And I was like, oh, God, please. then I can, you know, stay at home and sleep in and, you know, go out during the day and do my

schoolwork like grading in the park. And then on Monday night in our group chat for the teachers, one of my friends, her boyfriend works for the news here. And she said, get on Channel 24. This is, like, something, they're going to close the schools almost guaranteedly. And they said on Monday night last Monday night that they're closing them starting the Wednesday so last Wednesday and we'll be for 15 days and then when we found out that and Tuesday we went to school, prepped our kids, picked up all our materials and came home and since then we've been teaching from home. It's almost guaranteedly going to be more than those 15 days though. So they closed the schools last week and then when did they start closing, have they officially

closed bars and restaurants? Like when did they start closing virtually? everything else. I believe that was Thursday or Friday, but it didn't come into like, you cannot leave until today. Like it was you should not leave to you cannot leave. And bars and restaurants, I believe we're starting to be closed on like Thursday Friday. What has the attitude been among the Spanish people and your friends and where people, are they alarmed? Are they, you know, a little bit like, oh, it'll be nice to work from home for a bit? Or, What are people thinking and saying? I mean, I know you can't obviously communicate in person right now, but, you know, what you're hearing via your phone. It's a lot of solidarity. A lot of people are like, this is obviously not going to be enjoyable and people are, you know, tons of people are sending, well, look at this website's offering this or you can check out these videos here.

But everyone is coming in with the attitude of, especially most of my friends who are younger, I'm probably, even if I get coronavirus, I'll be fine. but if I stay home, I can protect people from dying who are, you know, more vulnerable from coronavirus. And so this is what I can do to protect my community. And so I'm going to do it. That's been the general attitude, which I think it's really, really admirable. And you've been, I know you're staying with your in-laws in the guest room right now or your future in-laws. Have you been inside for, what, three days now? Yes. Yeah, we didn't leave. I brought a backpacker crazy yet. my place. Honestly, just the idea of it made me go crazy. Like, I had many a tear shed over the idea

that I couldn't leave for a while. I feel like since it actually officially started, I'm more like accepting it. But from what I've heard, especially from Italians, is that the last, like, after two weeks, you start to go real crazy. And we're only in two days. Oh, are you in touch with any Italians right now? I have a couple of friends from church who are in Italy. who are in Italy right now and they've been messaging our church groups and saying basically, you know, guys, what you're doing, you need to self-quarantine when it was optional. And then now that it's mandatory, they're trying to give tips and stuff because they've been in quarantine for so much longer.

And do they have any tips besides at the two-week point you're going to go crazy? A lot of basically you need to take care of your mental health. You need to make sure that you're communicating with people, that you're doing things. you're not just lying around all the time. And I think, so I haven't obviously officially seen this in any way, but Spaniards go out into their balconies. And at 10 o'clock every day, like everyone cheers for the doctors and the nurses and everyone else in the medical profession who are helping with this virus. Oh, that's so. And I've seen also videos.

I know. It's super nice. It's really, really, like, beautiful to see. And I've seen Italians going out, like, in videos and, like, singing, et cetera, to their neighbors. And so I think we kind of got that idea from them that, like, that, like, even though we're all separate, since we're so close by, we can still be in solidarity with each other. Which is kind of nice because, of course, in the U.S., most areas, I don't know, I guess we could all go out in our backyards in here. I'm not really sure how this would work.

I don't think it would work as well. Yeah, I mean, some cities in the U.S., yeah. So President Trump has restricted travel to Europe and from Europe. what is the attitude of both the Spanish people, the Spaniards, and I know you work with other American expats. How do people view this? So I haven't heard a lot of opinions on this. I don't think I've heard hardly anything from any Spaniards about this because for the most part, they don't really care. They weren't planning on going to the United States anyways.

But the general attitude is, thank God, that the U.S. is doing something to prevent this disease. that it needs to be taken seriously and taken seriously quickly. And so if a travel ban including us is much better than pretending nothing's happening or won't hit the United States. You're a high school teacher. And as you mentioned, you've switched to online teaching for, I guess, the foreseeable future. Now, you had never taught online before, right? No, never. So how is that going?

How is it affecting the students? You know, as much as you can tell, obviously, you're the teacher and they're not going to be totally honest with you. Well, honestly, I'm kind of pleasantly surprised about how many are doing work because, you know, obviously in the classroom, there'll be some students who they'll be sitting there, but they won't really be present. And the fact that students are, you know, it seems to be reading assignments and they're definitely answering me back. I only have a very few amount of students who aren't doing anything as of yet. And so that part I'm actually very impressed with. It takes a little bit out of the joy of teaching out because the fun part is talking to the kids and having them

express their opinions and then, you know, having engaged in a discussion, you know, obviously that's much more difficult to do over the internet. But it's, I mean, obviously, it's much better than just classes ending, which I would hope that wouldn't happen to anybody. So how are people communicating with each other right now? Are they texting? You mentioned that your church group has a WhatsApp group, which is for those Americans, you aren't familiar, WhatsApp is, I don't know, I guess you could compare it to Facebook Messenger. It's like a group chat thing. But honestly, it's used like texting.

Just texting. Are people doing FaceTime so they can see each other's faces? We actually, we had a book club meeting for Saturday and we just had our book club on Google Hangouts. So there's definitely like more communication than just texting. I can't believe you guys didn't cancel your book club. Well, we were all bored at home. So, as you mentioned, people are still allowed to go to the grocery store and the pharmacies. Are they running out of things?

I mean, in the United States, it's pretty crazy. I was at the grocery store just now. And in the meat section, basically the only options were this was really dire. Well, I mean, okay, I don't want to exaggerate. But corned beef, chicken gizzards and vegan burgers that are like probably some. Well, I mean, not obviously. compared to the people who have the coronavirus are scared of getting it. Like I realize this is a first world problem. But anyway, yeah, there's bizarre shortages. Toilet paper is out in a lot of areas.

You can't get hand sanitizer for love or money. Is Spain also having shortages? Well, when this first came into the news, I know it was really difficult to find hand sanitizer. You were able to, but wasn't necessarily going to be at the first pharmacy you went to. but since then after like a couple days of that it seemed that everyone restocked and there was plenty of hand sanitizer and then when they school shut down some stores ran out of some things but it wasn't like a lot like actually the meat thing that you said kind of surprised me because the day that they announced the quarantine we went to the grocery store and we had to get like this not tasty cut of chicken I don't remember what it was but they had tons of fish there was tons of meat it just it was

wasn't the best cuts, but there were still a lot of it available. So I think people are panicking more in return. But also in Spain, like you have a smaller refrigerator, so you don't have, you know, a second refrigerator, you don't have a second freezer. Space is more limited in general. So I think people like can't stock up the way that you can in the United States. But there were some things out, right? Because I think you sent us a photo where the pasta aisle was, uh, but there's still one type of pasta. There was like a really thin short noodle still available. You know, I've noticed nothing like quite like that at the grocery stores I've been to, but like the bean aisle is pretty picked over, soup, canned soup. I don't know. It just, at least in the

United States, it's very random. Like there's a lot of like, like, I noticed frozen pizza was still an abundance of it. Ice cream was still in abundance. But like some of these other things were definitely picked over. Yeah. The last time I was at the store, we couldn't find tomatoes. Like, there are no more tomatoes left. So I think some people are just also with that attitude of I'm in a stock up so I don't have to go for a week, but not for a year. So how are people entertaining themselves? Well, luckily, in a weird, strange, healthy sense, most of us, at least that I know, are able to work from home. So that's obviously a huge portion of your time. And then beyond that, it depends on the person. I know a lot of people are doing online exercise videos. A lot of people are

offering those for free right now, which I should be doing but haven't yet. And a lot of people are picking up on like things that they had meant to study but hadn't like I'm trying to study more French, read books I hadn't read before. So I think it just depends on the person. Basically people are trying to be a bit more ambitious with what they're doing at home. Do you think that's going to last or do you think it's going to end up everyone's just watching Netflix and going online within two days? There's only so much Netflix.

I don't think for if this goes. on for more than two weeks that we're really going to be satisfied with Netflix. That's a dark thought. So the churches, are they closed all over Spain or is it just Madrid? I mean, I know in the United States we have a lot of churches closed as well. They held it off for as long as possible. Even after they announced the quarantine, they hadn't announced that churches were going to close, but the Archbishop of Madrid had said that there was a dispensation that no one had to go to mass unless they wanted to. But then it was announced that the mass, the churches needed to be only at one-third occupancy. And since they couldn't guarantee that

for a Sunday, because normally they're, honestly, it appears to be over 100% occupancy with people standing. They, a lot of churches were closed. So I think that the Spanish prime minister's wife, whose name I can't recall and probably couldn't pronounce correctly, was just diagnosed with the coronavirus. Have you heard of anyone you know being diagnosed with this? Do you have any sense of, I mean, we know the actual numbers, but does everyone in Madrid know someone who has it right now, or how is that working? Thanks be to God, I actually do not know anybody who has it. From what I heard, but the only one in five people from Madrid know somebody who has it, which is actually saying something also because we have more than half the cases in Spain in Madrid.

But I think a lot of like the first like the big first attack of coronavirus here was a old age home. And so I think that since it's maybe disproportionately, it is disproportionately affecting the elderly, et cetera. Maybe there's people who also have like smaller social circles. And so that people are less likely to like it's not like, oh, it's somebody from my office has it. There's a lot of concern in the United States right now about a lot of people who have jobs that can't be done. online, you know, whether they're restaurant workers or, you know, I mean, there's a gazillion jobs that can't be done online. And there's also concern about, you know, people who work in grocery stores, who work in pharmacies. I mean, they're not healthcare professionals.

And now there's some of the only shops that are staying open. Is Madrid also wrestling with concerns over these matters? Absolutely. I actually teach Spanish as a second language and I gave my students today an assignment that was to read an article about how to go to the grocery store with coronavirus. And it included all these tips like wear gloves, bring a contact list card or at least pay with a credit card so you're not handing cash to the cashier, make a list beforehand so you go in and out as quickly as possible. The grocery stores have a limited capacity of how many people can be in it, which is obviously much more limited than normal. And so people are told they need to wait outside in a line three meters apart from

every person and then go in when somebody else leaves. And to the best of my knowledge, everyone is following these procedures. Everyone's being really, really respectful. You should send me that article. I need to learn these best practices. With a Google translation? Yes, or your own translation, if you love me, since you have nothing to do right now. Okay, probably too far. So last question. I mean, it's hard to know what the future is anywhere in the world right now, given, you know, we don't know how fast the coronavirus will spread. We don't know if it's going to recede in the summer.

There's so many factors we don't know right now. Does Spain have any sense of how long you guys might be stuck inside or what are you guys thinking? Are you taking it one day at a time? I think the official platform right now is it's going to be more than they originally looked upon 15 days. But as to how much more we can't know. I see in the news every day talks of like, oh, well, we might have found a vaccine. We might have found a cure. But realistically, obviously, that's not going to be coming around for.

like six to 12 months. And so between now and then, all we can do is pray and hope that it ends much, much, much faster than that. Okay. Well, Trees, thank you for coming on. I certainly hope that you stay okay. Thank you. But even if I get it, it probably won't be anything bad. I hope not. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. Please be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify, and please leave us a review or a rating on Apple Podcasts to give us your feedback. We'll see you again tomorrow and wish you a happy St. Patrick's Day. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation.

It is executive produced by Kate Shrinco and Rachel Del Judas. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Philly Aramper Sad, Mark Geinie, and John Pop. For more information, visitdailysignal.com.