FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Best place to spend winter during a potential second wave of COVID?
Old Oct 30, 2020, 1:05 pm
  #621  
the810
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: VIE
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Judging by the way Stockholm looked when I took a stroll in the early evening, it seems many are not ready for another round of Covid madness. Malls were relatively full and restaurants and bars were packed (and at least bars definitely didn't look like husband and wife's night out kind of situation). Of course, this is purely anecdotal and not very objective (after all, all those that do follow recommendations are invisible), but it's probably not how authorities wanted things go this evening. The reports I got from people in Uppsala are similar.

It seems Swedish authorities are now joining their European counterparts in having a population that is not willing to participate anymore. It doesn't help that restrictions in Uppsala were extended (long before they were meant to end), which sort of undermines Public Health Agency's statements that this is only temporary, for a short period of time.

Thus the big question is, what next? The way I see it, they have essentially three options:
  1. Do nothing and hope people will start following guidelines when they see situation develop seriously (but even if this works, it may be too late).
  2. Introduce more recommendations, as some government officials threatened. But trying to make people follow existing guidelines by introducing new ones would be a dubious strategy.
  3. Join the rest of Europe and declare war on their own citizens by introducing legally enforcable meassures. However, based on how it backfired in most of Europe, I don't think anyone has an appetite for this approach. Indeed Swedish authorities seem to be aware that this battle can only be won by cooperating with people, rather than using repression.
Push back too little and you get a terrible second wave. Push too hard and you may lose even the remaining support of the population. This is going to be hard to balance.

I'm increasingly leaning towards going to some god-forgotten place far away from people and enjoying few solitary months in the nature (and playing videogames in the evening, who am I kidding), far away from all this mess. The trouble is that in winter, outdoor activities are somewhat limited for people with little hiking experience.
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