One year on, how has your life changed because of Covid-19?
It’s been one year since the first coronavirus case was reported in Switzerland. Has the pandemic prompted you to make changes in your life? How so? We’d like to hear from you.
From the article ‘Western societies were poorly prepared to cope with the pandemic’
From the article Coronavirus: the situation in Switzerland
I think that we are very lucky to be living in Switzerland. Even during lockdown we could go walking in beautiful countryside. Vaccines are readily available, but not compulsory for those who are still vaccine-hesitant, and the health care system is excellent. Yes, it has been hard not to be able to visit relatives and friends living in other countries and absolutely yes, we should be doing more to help countries that don't have enough vaccines for their populations. But, for the moment, let's just be very thankful for our good fortune to be living in this beautiful, well-organised country.
The increasing number of Covid cases in Switzerland is certainly of concern. However, it should also be a source of continuing concern that there is still an inequitable distribution of vaccines. For instance, a little more than 1% of vaccines have been available to Africa. There are developing countries who have not even been able to fully vaccinate Covid pandemic front liners. The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) has been drawing attention to this serious situation. In the Swissinfo news is the following about Switzerland, for instance:
"Authorities have ordered some 36 million vaccine doses from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Curevac and Novavax for the population of 8.6 million people....On August 25, the government announced it signed another deal with Pfizer/BioNtech to supply vaccines for the next two years."
Is this fair? It is an ethical issue. In addition, no one country can be safe if there are others whose populations remain essentially unvaccinated. The latter has been referred to as "Corona virus variants factories." Beware!!!
The gym limitations have greatly affected my health. As a 4-5 time per week exerciser, I track my health metrics, all of them down severely since December, and more than at any other lockdown, causing far more damage to my health than Covid ever would have done. Ive put on weight, and lost muscle. As a 56 year old woman, that’s a big deal. Women aren’t like men and we change one thing, like add a workout, and the weight just disappears and the muscle comes back. No. We take several months to get that back with calorie restriction and more time at the gym. It’s one thing when that happens due to injury or choice, but pretty messed up when it’s your government making you unhealthy, in the name of health safety.
I'm still waiting for a vaccine appointment. In its infinite wisdom, the Gov has opened up too many groups, without having the necessary supplies. Now, people younger & healthier than me are getting vaccinated, queue jumpers in other words. In some Kantons, vaccines are being given to 16 year olds. If they have managed to vaccinate e.g. all over 50s, they should send their spare vaccines to Kantons that have not. After all, we live in one country, don't we?
I must say that, that is madness... even my own doctor didn't understand why health professionals were not allowed to be vaccinated before patients/clients - if they wanted to be!!! Political I think...
As a woman life is a lot harder. It is close to impossible to date anyone with all the travel restrictions and this makes it impossible to even think of having a family since you cannot meet anyone.
I know I only have a few years to have children before I will not be able to have them anymore.
Life is a lot better and harder now. We have less money but we spend a lot of time with our children. It is a tough trade off, but I am not sure if I would like to go back to work anymore. I really enjoy spending 8 hours a day with my children.
As a teacher, I can say I am among the fortunate who haven' lost much, due to this pandemic, in terms of money. BUT a lover of the beauty of nature, as I have always been, I felt a strong sense of loss at having to restrict my liberty to take the first train from Milano Stazione Centrale to Lugano or anywhere in lovely Switzy (as I love to call Switzerland). About 20 years ago, I decided to buy the so-called 1/2 prezzo ticket as I went more often from Milano to Switzy than to other parts of Italy; and for two reasons: 1, it just takes less time and so as soon as I finished working, let's say about 01.00 pm I got the first train that came along and in a matter of minutes I was relaxing by the lake (LUGA), after passing by MIGROS or MANOR, for food and drink. 2, it was my mum who, when I was a child, taught us children that we had better explore, WHILE WE COULD, what was, let's say, beyond our nose. And now I know fully what those words meant, and mean. My generation has read about wars only in books, but going through this "virus war" first hand has had an impact that has changed all of us for the time to come and written evidence will never give the real feeling. Now we only have to hope for better times, but we have to be careful, both for ourselves and for the people we love, because it's not over yet....
All our daily things are about 3x more expensive than a year ago like food and cleaning products.
Otherwise we never go out anymore and we just stopped talking with people. They can send a message on Whatsapp and they will receive a response eventually. We realized we do not need people and we can work from home, while our 3 children play with each other and the 2 dogs.
When the virus stops completely we can talk with other people. Till then we just order all our things online and do not talk with anyone. let them die first of the virus.
As a freelancer for most of my life..... the lockdown hasn't brought about much change. I've spent months at my desk in the past writing, editing, sorting papers and pictures, not meeting anyone. I have a second job as a teacher, and that was very enlightening in some ways (I blogged about all this). My wards also found it fun, because it was different. We, the teachers, the adults, actually invaded their "playground," online spaces...
For my family, it's different. my daughter is in "collège" and the first lockdown was quite hard on her. She missed her friends, though occasionally they would meet and go on long walks around Geneva...
But we live in a cooperative with 37 other families, and that makes/made all the difference. We would meet on the balconies or up on the roof, or in the garden, etc.... We started a singing group, and at one point sang with two guitars, a clarinet, a harp, percussions, etc... It must be very hard on the people who live in more anonymous situations.
On a personal level, I understand the dilemma of the governing bodies in having to deal with the various segments of society all clamoring for recognition. They are like a troop on-stage with the audience groups telling them what play they want to hear, the one group wants Molière, the next wants Shaw, and a few just want to sit back, smoke cigars and burn down the theater.
The pandemic, like all crises, are a test of our personal mettle. A Viennese prof of philosophy named Liessman, observed something interesting: People are simply irritated by the pandemic. It got in the way of their comfort. So many (some friends of mine, too) have fallen for conspiratorial rubbish, a form of entertainment. The endless complaining and silly statements about masks being some sort of expression of a pending sanitary dictatorship are genuinely silly. I teach in a public school in Geneva. We have to wear masks, so we do it, we don't complain, we get the job done and hope we won't get sick anyway.
Theme: contradictions
I'm here again and these are my opinions and reflections only!
The thing that I have trouble coming to grips with are the Contradictions and please note that I include myself here; it is a learning experience I am finding.
Where do I start and which is more important or controversial than the other, so not in any particular order.
The Swiss voted on banning face coverings and the Burka became controversial even more so, in my thoughts. Yesterday, I saw a woman with her scarf over her head and the face mask. I saw her eyes. I thought how during covid time and with masks, that I have started focusing on people’s eyes more so. Looking for the something that indicates how that person is. I notice that without a mask I may smile - but do I really mean it and now with a mask I have to be more conscious with what I do with my masks. I particularly noticed this when paying for something and I smiled, under my mask, but realised the salesperson couldn’t see that smile and then I realised that I needed to ‘change my eyes’ to reflect my mood but it was to late, the moment was gone. The sales person may have already formed an opinion about me and it was to late to change that ‘first impression’. So, I for one am challenged and positive that having to focus more on the eyes is a good thing actually.
One of my challenges has been how much I rely on being able to sit in a cafe with a tea and read my book and more so during the colder weather. What I have found unbearable is that I was in a Ski lift packed with people and yet I still cannot sit in a larger cafe with only three people in it, or, even out doors with minimal people. The contradiction is astounding for me. Is it because the experts/government/authorities think that ‘gatherings’ are dangerous? Yet, I can be in a tram for thirty minutes, yes with a mask, but aren’t I still at risk or giving/receiving the virus? Yet sitting outside in the fresh air at a cafe is also seen as ‘totally’ dangerous!!
Dictators have come and gone and some have killed many people. There are some that would question the numbers killed and their opponents might say that ‘even one person being killed is one to much’ and yet I’ve heard it said, by people I know, that ‘only a couple of people have died/gotten sick’ from a Vaccination for COVID-19 and yet they accept this stance as being alright! I am challenged by this seemingly strange contradiction and the challenge is hard I tell you. Where is the line that knowingly/unknowingly contributing to another human beings’ death is alright? Of course, this is a hard-philosophical question to deal with. I say this because earlier on I realised that when it came to COVID-19 and people dying there was immediate action but when it came to people dying of air pollution, bad water, war (lets bomb our enemy in the name of peace, until we have peace!), passive smoking etc., etc., there is nothing we can do - quickly! I find this a real dilemma I must say.
I find it interesting that there have been so many conspiracy theories, from many quarters. Earlier in the pandemic we had medical people saying the virus was not dangerous while others said the COVID-19 was terribly dangerous. Who do we believe? After-all, aren’t all these people professionally trained? How can it be that one medical person can have such a different opinion about such a serious health situation? I would have thought that the standards around testing would have been agreed to by all medical people?
Yet! Despite all that I have previously said, I saw people in the open yesterday in small groups enjoying the sunshine, having a drink together, eating something, talking together, smiling. So, is it that ‘one can be free whilst in jail?’, that while the lockdowns drive me mad that I need to find another way of being in this world! The only thing that would be ‘returning to normal’ for me would be sitting in a cafe drinking a tea and reading a book, but is it that I could do that outside with my thermos filled with hot tea and dressed for the cold? So maybe the ‘new normal’ is finding a new way of being whilst feeling like one is constrained in a straight-jacket? After-all, some countries had banned sitting in parks and we currently have that freedom in Switzerland.
Drinking with people on skype is a lot easier... you can do it from your own home and get drunk without issues in public.
Considering that it's deemed too dangerous to open the gym facilities and restaurants but safe enough to open Glattzentrum, which on a weekend attracts people by the thousands. It doesn't make sense.. and singing is forbidden? are they serious? I guess the virus only affects people who are over 20 years old.
It is very sad to see the Swiss government, how can I put it, going a bit the wrong way. For example, they close the borders with Italy too late, a month too late, about 2000 people die(mid February to the 28th of February) The reason given was "We must consult with Italy first).
I never ask my neighbor before I lock my house door, he never got upset about it!
Now with the vaccines, they sign treaties with foreign countries and International organizations. So we in Switzerland must wait to be safe. People will die in Switzerland because of those delays.
I see the government only to check that the vaccines are genuine, and safe, that all. Private individuals and organization could had already import and distributed those vaccines a long time ago.
Let the citizen make those decisions we do not need a nanny state.
My question is for who the representatives are working for? For the people that elect them and that pay they salaries, or some other countries and international organizations?
CARLOSFERR2000
You are completely wrong. I have no idea which newspapers you read........ ;-) , but the case of Israel and the International court in Den Haag, was widely covered here and other EU newspapers.
Besides this is nor the right place to place your message here. I noticed that maybe your view of life have changed from 'positive' to 'negative' .............. ;-) Keep S-A-F-E, and be happy!
I realised how much power the media has, they are no doctors and shut up all doctors, just amazing how they make up peoples minds.. the reality is quite the opposite. Example: in Israel the dead rate increased dramatically to the point that an action in the International court of Haia was open and accepted for crimes against the humanity.
NO SINGLE NEWSPAPER HAS PUBLISHED THIS. SO MEDIA IS NOT TELLING THE TRUE , AND THIS POST LIKELY WILL BE REJECTED LOL
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My mistrust for government has gone up 100-fold, as has my disbelief at how willing people are to be led around by (and politicise something completely a-political) are the main things that have changed with me.
I am self-employed. In 2019, I was traveling the world on business: China, Japan, Vietnam, US, and all over Europe. Then, in March 2020, my business crashed, and I had a very difficult few months, almost ruining my business. As the world has found new ways of working, my business has restored, but it is different. I no longer travel to distant locations. Where I was going there on behalf of European clients, now the people there are asking me to do work here. I have survived, and my carbon footprint is lower, much lower. I rarely fly now, I walk more, and so on. It has been a difficult adjustment, but I don't really want to go back to the old way of working. I would like a holiday though.
Thanks for sharing your experience! What have you found to be the advantages and disadvantages of this "new" way of working, besides the carbon footprint?
I'm thankful for the pandemic. Because of all the pressure on banking and pharma companies my husband and I both got a nice two years paid package to end our contracts early as we are in our early 50s. We know it will be close to impossible to find another job at this age.
With all these complications we decided to use all our savings to help our children pay off their school debt, medical bills and mortgages. We're old enough to stop paying, declare bankrupcy and just have the state take care of us. The state found enough money for the airlines, so they will find enough money for us as well.
You are in your early 50s and you are thinking of retirement, even declaring bankrupt, so that you do not have to work? That is truly shocking.
What if many other people thought like you? Who will produce the products/services needed in the society?
You must work? Start a small business! Not working will likely make you ill. Humans need a purpose in life, to be healthy and happy.
Well we became poor, we can't
even afford to buy a new dryer, because old one broke. We are thinking about moving away if situation does not change and independent workers continue being neglected by government. We work with children and since non school personal is no longer allowed in school we can't go on and no one cares or helped us. So from happy quite life with future possibilities we are now in deserted and aggressive place with strong feeling of opposition to existing government.
If you are a citizen you can do what we'll do. We'll even get a divorce so they'll give us double the money and space. Nothing prevents us afterwards to keep being together. But if you are foreigners then it is really bad. We also have a few friends in the same situations: Migros teachers and translators. Their lives are ruined.
Thank you for suggestion, my husband is swiss but I am not so divorce unfortunately won't help us. I am sorry for your friends and that you have to go though all this nightmare with finding a solution to how make any money now. I wish Switzerland took more care about their workers in all sectors as well as students because part time quick jobs are gone.
I am privileged enough in that my financial situation has remained the same and therefore I could say 'no change' but that would be a rather superficial response if I left it at that and didn't share some of my reflections and deeper emotional experiences.
In hindsight the restrictions have challenged my individual beliefs and philosophical outlooks for myself and those around me.
I know that it is easy for me to be a homebody and I am mostly alright with that, but, I never realised that my sense of freedom, my sense of individuality would be challenged to such a dramatic extent because I couldn't just up and leave my apartment to take my book and sit in a cafe and read; or my theatre visits would be stopped in Switzerland, let alone jumping in the train to attend the opera in other cities in Europe. At the beginning my trips outside were to meet my basic requirements of having to eat; therefore I needed to buy milk etc., and this has been my to advantage because I forced myself to use that as a way of leaving the apartment and see what others were doing in regard to wearing masks. I experienced very early on the rudeness of some when in the supermarket in not keeping their distance, despite wearing the mask. The lack of respect, consideration of 'the other' and yet the impression was given that we would be safe from catching the virus or transmitting it if a mask was worn but then I noticed other psychological factored coming into play in myself and others!
The government was playing down the wearing of masks but then they admitted that Switzerland had a shortage of masks. In hindsight I realised that I refused to wear a mask outside and at the same time started to hear the fake news of how the virus was not really so dangerous - this combination creates a divide in society even if unconsciously. The authorities helped to create this division in the population!
A simple example of why could be that when in school a teacher would present their lesson but when I noticed that they kept referring to their notes I realised that they either didn't know their subject good enough to teach without continually referring to their notes, or they were really not that interested in their subject. Either way I took the attitude of 'if they don't know of don't care, then why should I bother!'
One could say, as a critic, that I'm being childish and maybe rightfully so, but given that I have so many unconscious ideas going on then I think I'm right.
If the government had gotten off its high horse and put the residents health as their first priority they could have been honest from the word go and admitted to not having enough masks and asked everyone to cover up when in public with whatever means they had at their disposal; but instead created doubt by trying not to create a panic! Some people panicked anyway!
I think the population are faced with their own individuality and also things are no longer so hidden if we really reflect on different situations.
One friend who totally believes in the authorities and their message will sit in our apartment as a dinner guest yet having disobeyed the authorities we have a mixture from three families when the authorities suggest that a max of only two families should mix. So not only am I not acting irresponsible but the friend who believes 100% in the authorities rule is acting irresponsible! I know longer believe in the authorities 100% and if I'm honest - I never have.
I liked reading the comment from '@IANHALL' - 'makes me wonder if they're crazy or just incredibly stupid.'
So I'm confronted daily with my own ideas and philosophical beliefs etc., as well as those of others.
This situation in our time creates conflict and divisions in each individual and in society.
Madness.
I continue to reflect and evolve.
Thank you so much for your reflections. There is so much we've learned about ourselves and others during this time - both good and bad. We have had to face our own selfish impulses throughout and I wonder what long-term effects it will have on us all. Thanks again for your thoughts
We have a new society where only the fools work. If you are smart you do not work and let the government pay for all your stuff.
Might not be the perfect living, but you have an endless vacation and they would never send people out because everyone would riot.
Covid is still on that's why many people can't work and have to be compensated. Speculating that they won't start work after covid is over is silly as government support is not forever, it depends on how many years you have worked previously an many don't receive any help from governor but still can't continue work.
you seem to accept the comments that are aligned with your agenda, awake up, the bunker will not save you, they been lying to you. wake up please. you know this is wrong
Some people are lucky. I lost everything: a good job, a 7 year relationship and a big chunk of my savings.
I'll start over somewhere else. Most likely the US. Switzerland has been awful.
I am very sorry to read of your losses. But writing from the U.S., I hope you will be cautious in making any decision to "start over" here, especially in a "blue" state, which means politically Democrat/liberal or what, in this country, is called "left-wing." We are still in various stages of restrictions. Restaurants, an industry that has been crushed over the past year, are allowed to re-open for indoor-dining at percentage-restrictions of occupancy. Schools are still in one or another "protocol" mode---all virtual or hybrid. The housing market in less restrictive states is booming. Gas (petrol) has increased almost one dollar per gallon in my state since last fall, and this is a suburban area, so we are dependent on the automobile for almost everything. Our government services, like utilities, are in extreme disarray. If you need help with anything from an agency or company, you will be hard-pressed to reach an actual person no matter by what means you try---phone, e-mail, postal-mail. The social atmospherics are profoundly different from one state to another; of course, depending on what field of endeavor you are in, you may have to limit your list of which states to consider. We are very unstable now. Even formerly quiet/peaceful places are not necessarily safe. Our medical system is (probably) laughable by European standards. Our "public safety" forces have been largely diverted from what used to be their jobs to "mask-policing." Our press is completely unreliable; we have more "information" than ever before, but we know next to nothing, because each item of information is in contrast to the next item about the same event. I will stop here, with hope that eventually things work out for you, wherever you decide to start over.
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