I’m seriously annoyed by some politicians and even doctors and scientists in the public discourse in Germany, who still try to play numbers/statistics games to somehow wish this away. Doesn’t matter that there is more testing than at the beginning - I just need to look at the hospitalisation numbers in my city to see that we are now almost exactly where we were at the peak in April and this will only keep getting worse unless we do something now like we did then.
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This is largely a problem of messaging, and it is something that few places have got right. Furthermore, I think the influence of social media can often end up amplifying only partially correct understandings, and then that makes it difficult to adjust the response as the situation changes.
For instance, how many people have you seen/heard say “this lock down was about flattening the curve. We’ve done that so why cant we now just go back to normal?” That is not an insane perspective if the only thing you heard in march was that we need to flatten the curve. Of course, that was not the end goal of the pandemic response, merely a short term requirement that required a drastic response. But the flood of well meaning socially conscious people flooded social media shaming people into not doing their part to flatten the curve and without aggressive consistent messaging from the public health authorities and politicians to get in front of that only 80% messaging, it meant the natural reaction in June and July was to expect for live to get back to normal.
Likewise with masks. To combat the selfish people who don’t want to wear them, the line started spreading that “I wear my mask not to protect me, but to protect you.” There is an element of truth in there, and the intent of the messaging is clear and well meaning, but it misses the big picture. It isnt about me getting sick or you getting sick. It is about minimizing community transmission, and that is relevent to all of us even if we are confident in our ability to not get sick. Most of the people resistant to masks are the ones most eager for society to return to normal, and that is what the actual bigger picture messaging over masks needed to be…when universally worn it dramatically slows down transmission within a community. The better we do that the more of our usual activities (albeit while masked) we can get back e.g. schools, restaurants etc.
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It depends on the areas. The compliance level is also very dependent on where you look at. Authorities are now busy turning the screw, but all happens at regional scale: closure of museums, theatres, night-clubs etc. is decided at local level. The mask-wearing is for all in-door situations, but it’s more guidelines, rather than strict rules.
At the end of the first wave, the regions asked the federal state to be able to exert control over their own covid-related regulations. The federal state thus leaned back, and let the regions do their stuff. Not a great idea with hindsight, given the current evolution…
Now, many regions have come back crawling to the federal state, asking them to edict new, stricter rules. First, the federal state refused and told the regions and everyone in the country to take their responsibilities and to follow the existing guidelines more thoroughly.
But it seems that will change rapidly now, and yes, I fully expect some form of lockdown, probably next week. 
I don’t think there is any alternative with the recent days of ~5% of the cumulative total being reported in a single day. Switzerland’s number of active cases is likely quite a bit higher than several countries with higher cumulative totals. Certainly the case for Canada, we have reported over 200k, but have about half the number of active cases in 5x the population.
Geneva and Vaud not looking at all good.
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I live in one area and go to the other on a regular basis, for work and family reasons.
Right in the eye of the storm, as it should. 
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Let’s get real here, there’s a lot more people who just don’t really care about what they perceive as just a disease for the old, sick and weak than would openly admit it. So they have to dress it up as some sacred resistance and a fight for ‘freedom’ or ‘the economy’. I happen to know quite a few bar/pub/club owners, arguably among the worst hit around here and certainly as ‘eager’ as anyone for this all to end asap, but interestingly none of them hold these views.
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I dont disagree. Im in Florida and so it’s not surprising that the median attitude I experience is probably different to yours, but even with that I know a lot of people in the bar and restaurant business who are taking a very responsible attitude towards this. yes they are desperate to reopen as normal and are scared of what will happen if they cant, but that is not clouding their attitude towards the reality of the situation - they run business that are not safe to operate as normal right now. However, I know tons of people who think the universe is bound to work according to the way they want it to. these are the people who have done everything possible to find loop holes in the regulations to get back to operating as usual. I seen many business owners find innovative ways to open up while focusing on safety, but I have seen just as many focus their innovation on finding a way to simply reopen “legally” with no fucks paid to the public implications. It’s the equivalent of taking the back roads home when drink driving because there arent police on them to pull you over.
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Sure, that was just anecdotal and of course there are loads of bars/clubs who don’t give a fuck around here as well - I just don’t know the people who run/own them on a personal level.
I guess what annoys me is this assumption that there’s one ‘team’/side that supposedly only cares about health/safety and doesn’t feel or doesn’t realise the economic consequences of the measures needed.
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Restaurants here are trying desperately to find ways to extend the outdoor patio season now that all indoor is now closed. Enclosing their patios with plastic, putting heaters on - then complaining when enforcement points out that that is basically indoors. In fact worse, because the ventilation is more limited, usually only one path for air to exit. Anyone who is familiar with how traditional offset smokers work can see the comparison.
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What has pissed me off is that businesses shouldn’t have been left out on an island trying to figure this shit out for themselves. Especially for bars and restaurants, many local ordinances would need to be changed or overlooked to given these businesses the opportunity to reimagine their operation in this environment, and it seems like if the local governments and businesses worked together they could find solutions that would then give other businesses not involved in those talks the direction to follow to reopen safely as well. And it just hasnt happened.
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I understand that businesses/employees/ carers etc need help, but pls think of all the people who took early retirement during the local government cuts, who cannot claim their government pension, who claim no benefits, and no allowances from the local council…who have to live off their well saved pensions. No-one has asked how we are, we still have to buy sanitisers, antibacs wipes, extra food and keep our distance, …so pls think of us…coz I don’t think Boris or Ritchie know about us.
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Not what happened in the example of the image above. Two warnings that one end had to be fully open, the other could not be more than 50% enclosed. Just an example of trying to push the measures to the logical breaking point.
My suspicion is that the complaint the enforcement officials finally acted on came from another nearby restaurant that was following the regulations.
I was half listening to the radio earlier this week - it got my attention when the interviewee said that previous pandemics had a lifespan of, on average 18 months,. I cant remember where I heard it ( It is entirely feasible that I dreamt it) but that would give an “end” date of June - Dec 2021. It gave me a little bit of hope when I heard that
Did anyone else hear the interview - or is there any other research that bears this out?
Not heard that. but looking at the last few major pandemics
Spanish Flu - March 1918 to April 1920
Swine Flu - September 2008 (date is not known and range from June to November, but September is given as the likely point) to August 2010
Sars - November 2002 to May 2004
Bird Flu - 2004 to 2007 (Wikipedia not clear on closer range of dates just giving the years)
Zika Virus - April 2015 to November 2016 (although researchers were investigating a virus outbreak in Brazil as early as August 2014)
These are only the ones I can remember off the top of my head, and not icluding Ebola, HIV, Cholera, Typhoid, Small Pox, Measles, Dengue Fever and god knows how many other viruses there are which can lead to a pandemic.
But looking at the dates I have listed, 18 months is a bit optimistic and more likely to be looking at 24-30 months in my opnion - especially when dealing with a ‘new’ virus which science really knew nothing about until maybe June/July, so it has been running amock for at least 6 months, possibly closer to 8-9 as it took the Chinese several months to really know what they were dealing with and they witheld the details from the scientific community til around Feb-March so I would be surprised if this bastard isn’t still around in some way or another at the end of 2021 early 2022.
Just my opinion and happy if I am wrong
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He mentioned the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 and another one in 1968 - Gotta be honest I was unable to listen properly - my attention was elsewhere.
1968 Hong Kong Flu. July 1968 to spring 1970.
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Just got back from taking the kids to the nature reserve for a walk around and walked back through the village. All the cafes and bars full of old people crammed shoulder to shoulder round tables. It’s been like this all summer. They haven’t missed a fucking beat. There is a disease out there that might kill them, people are making huge sacrifices to keep them safe, but they aren’t willing to forgo their twice daily coffee, gossip and the chance to dribble out some regurgitated right wing opinion from their fucking Daily Mail. They do my head in.
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Cholera & Typhoid are not viruses. They are bacterial and thankfully easily treatable now with antibiotics.
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True, but they still get fairly large outbreaks that do lead to occasional pandemics and epidemics.