Justified Self-Isolation

It is important to know that you are in Justified Self-Isolation. Over the last three or four days I have felt like an idiot for self-isolating, but I now see that this is entirely justified. The R number for some canton went from 0.70 or so up to 1.4 or higher in recent days. This is for Bern, Geneva and Vaud, and it should spread more with the weekend.

As tough as it is to keep self-isolating and not meeting people the change of this board from light orange to dark red has been very fast. What’s worse is that this data is from the 25th of June. This isn’t data from today.

#CoronaInfoCH #Coronavirus #COVID19
09.07. Attualmente, si contano 704 943 casi confermati in laboratorio, 323 in più rispetto al giorno precedente. Test annunciati: 33 780 nelle ultime 24 ore.
Tasso di riproduzione Re del 29.06.2021: 1,45 https://t.co/TYjML63Q58 pic.twitter.com/nxE13ua3kb
— BAG – OFSP – UFSP (@BAG_OFSP_UFSP) July 9, 2021

The R number for Switzerland is 1.45 and the Delta Variant, at the time of their data was 40 percent. This means that we are in for another autumn and winter of self-isolation. There is talk from Pfizer of a third booster shot. It seems that the effectiveness declines after 6 months.

In the past when I heard about pandemics, and highly infectious diseases, I was always under the impression that the aim was to contain and prevent the spread of a virus. During this pandemic, this was definitely true during the first few months of the pandemic. As we move forward though the aim of getting to a transmission rate of zero for two weeks in a row, before easing restrictions seems to have been abandoned. This does not make sense. Containing a virus makes sense, because as we have seen, if it is given enough opportunities it mutates, again and again, and each time the danger and threat level increase.

This time from the lifting of sanctions to the R number increasing has been short. Within two or three weeks of the lifting of restrictions, we see that active self-isolation is justified. It is a shame that more people do not watch the news, and react appropriately. It feels as though, if the government does not give people orders, they will not protect themselves, or each other. Furthermore, it is a shame, as self-motivation is better, than having to be told what to do.