The Day Switzerland and Denmark Decided to Ignore the Pandemic. This Isn’t Freedom, This is Exposure.
Today is the day that Switzerland and Denmark decided to ignore the pandemic. They and other European countries have decided to lift quarantines, remove the need to work remotely and other such safety measures. Health indicators shows that there is a consistent rise in new cases in Switzerland and Denmark. They say it’s over but the graphs and data show that it is not.
Switzerland says that since 90 percent of the population has been exposed to the virus there is no need to worry anymore. Several governments have just decided to wash their hands of the pandemic. This moment is insane. It makes no rational sense to just decide that a pandemic is over like this. I think it will come back to haunt these leaders. I want them to be held responsible for their decisions, several months or years down the line.
This is a frustrating moment because it means that Covid-zero could be years or even decades ago. Going to cinemas, to restaurants, to bars, to indoor events will always carry an inherent risk of danger. This isn’t like the risk of flu or a cold. This is a new disease that the current generation of politicians have decided to live with, rather than eradicate. Remember that the Romans drained the swamps of Rome to get rid of Malaria, so there is no valid reason for 21st century leaders to do the same with Covid-19.
This moment doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense that politicians would choose to let people fall sick, rather than prevent it. It doesn’t make sense that they aren’t losing their jobs. If the 737 Max had its issues today, would anyone bother to investigate it or would planes have been allowed to continue to crash due to that issue with trim that was eventually fixed.
As a media student I have to ask, has the media landscape and the Fourth Estate, become so superficial that politicians, can act or fail to act, in impunity, without consequences for their actions or inactions. England, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and one or two other countries seem to have no Fourth Estate, to keep politicians accountable. It feels as if the Fourth Estate is failing in its democratic role, of keeping government transparent.
People are angry with what is happening. They feel that they have been failed by their governments. They feel that the governments could and should have done more during this pandemic to keep people safe.
That’s why I would like for leaders, during this pandemic, to be investigated for Human Rights violations. The right to health is in the UDHR and other documents. The Right to Health for Children is in the Charter for the Rights of Children. The pandemic isn’t over by a long shot, but in the meantime investigations should be mounted to investigate whether leaders behaved immorally, and if so to hold them to account.
We can’t control a pandemic, but we can control how we react to it once we have more information.
I just noticed that the idiots have used freedom day:
Les milieux économiques demandent un retour à la situation ordinaire. “La Suisse doit apprendre à vivre avec le virus, sans que les droits fondamentaux garantis par la Constitution ne soient restreints de manière disproportionnée”, avancent-ils, proposant à nouveau un “Freedom Day” (jour de liberté, où toutes les mesures seront levées).
The Freedom Day they speak of is not a freedom day. It is a day to ignore the danger posed by the virus, to risk an inordinate amount of people, to fall sick from Covid-19 at once.
From one day to the next the government has decided the pandemic is over. This isn’t a war. This is a pandemic. You don’t just sign a peace treaty with a virus. The virus will continue to pick us off until moral leaders decide to eradicate it.
I will conclude today’s post by saying that I am sad. I am sad that the government has failed us since June 2020 until today, and that as of today it has decided just to ignore the danger, rather than protect the society it is responsible for. I am sad that there is no end in sight for this pandemic, and I am sad that we have little hope of a normal life, unless we choose to ignore the risk. This isn’t freedom. This is exposure.