Deaf Swedish woman explains country’s unique approach to COVID-19
Sweden’s approach to controlling the spread of the coronavirus is unique in Europe in that it has allowed elementary and middle school to continue their in-person classes and allowing restaurants to remain open.
Here is a video from a Deaf Swedish woman, Lisa Å, who will give us some perspectives.
LISA Å:
Hello, I’m Lisa (Signs name) from Sweden.
There are many across the world who think that Sweden is crazy. Their schools are still open. We can still go and eat out at restaurants. Why, how is this possible and should we avoid doing this? Maybe, maybe not.
Around March, the number of cases skyrocketed because during the last 2 weeks of February, we had our winter break. Many of us usually go to the Alps for skiing trips. Some will visit France, Italy, Austria, or Switzerland. My family and I went to France for one week which was nice. During the 3rd week of February, in Italy, there were cases starting to pop up. At the time, the virus was still new, and we didn’t fully understand the severity of the situation. We went back home after one week and keep in mind that Sweden has 10 million residents.
In Stockholm, there are 2 million people there. That means when people went back home, we also went back to work.
The time it took to become infected with the novel coronavirus and to develop symptoms took between 4 to 10 days. That led to the sharp increase in the number of cases in March. Even so, the number of cases hasn’t reached the level where hospitals would face shortages of beds, doctors and nurses. The situation is still manageable for our hospitals.
Our government had deliberated with their Department of Health to develop recommendations such as washing our hands, staying home and working at home if possible. We need to avoid interacting with the elderly or anyone with underlying health conditions. So far, it appears that we have been successful so I hope we will be able to keep that curve flattened so that it’s manageable for our hospitals.
Still, why are our schools open though? The government and the Department of Health had envisioned that the best long-term solution was to:
One, if children are still attending school and the school closes, then their parents will have to stay home to take care of them. What about doctors and nurses at hospitals? They would have to stay home as well. There are various services in the community, but they’ve stopped their operations.
Also, if children stay home while their parents go to work, then who will watch over the children? The grandparents usually step in, but they’re also vulnerable to acquiring this virus. Also, from what I’ve seen, it seems that children are not acquiring this virus and passing it onto people. That’s why they felt it was best to keep the school open so the kids could interact with each other, go outside, exercise and things they should do. Compared to staying home, becoming bored and getting frustrated or perhaps developing mental health issues.
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Yes, you might have seen pictures of restaurants being busy and congested. You know how the news will usually headline the worst-case scenarios or the best picture of their stories. It’s been my experience so far that people here actually listen and are respectful. They will sit at their table set up away from each other. At the food store, there are glass panels protecting the cashiers. People have to practice social distancing here. Of course, we will always have a group of people who either don’t take this seriously, don’t care or don’t think they can get sick. It will be a challenge in this upcoming summer when people will start to get fed up with staying at home. Perhaps this will cause the number of cases to rise again, I don’t know. Hopefully, we will be able to flatten the curve. Compared to other countries, they’ve shut down their schools and ordered their people to stay home. Maybe the number of cases will continue to plateau so how do we manage the reopening process while ensuring the cases don’t rise again? That will be a difficult scenario to approach. It’s hard to tell whether Sweden or the rest of the world is right or wrong. We will see what happens in 6 months, 1 year, 2 years or beyond. The effects of this coronavirus will continue to reverberate for a long time. I am very hopeful that the number of new cases will steadily reduce. So, the world can start recovering.
You take care and wash your hands!
THE DAILY MOTH:
Thank you, Lisa (zoom) for sharing. She does bring up good points about keeping schools open so the parents of children can continue their work, and also we see that there are social distancing rules in place for restaurants. Like Lisa said, only time will tell on whether Sweden or other countries’ approaches to coronavirus is effective.