The last number of daily cases officially reported, 2 days ago (Friday, we are on Sunday – they don’t report cases during the week-end) are 9000+. Canton of Solothurn ran out of ICU beds, Neuchâtel is close to follow, 1 or 2 beds left.
The federal government response is maybe the worst: they managed to get healthcare professionals in the streets, protesting, in the middle of a pandemic. Why? Because they reduced the salary of all public servants by 1%, including the salary of doctors and nurses in public hospital who bear the brunt of the efforts to care for the hundreds of patients caused by the absence of strong measures.
Let’s back up a bit. During all summer, september and october, the Science Task Force in charge of advising the government called for stricter measures to be put in place to avoid a 2nd wave. Their reports were more and more alarmist as time went by but they fell on dead ears.
Last week, their predictions came true: 4-fold increase in the number of hospitalizations in 2 weeks (Belgium had a 3-fold increase and France doubled in the same time period). From best in class, Switzerland was now leading Europe by number of daily cases and positivity rates (26 – 28%).
https://www.tdg.ch/la-prise-en-charge-dans-les-hopitaux-sera-menacee-878274250322
What did the federal council do? Concretely, nothing, or not much. They closed clubs and discotheques. Bars and restaurants can stay open until 23pm. They admonished the population for not respecting distance, mask and hand washing and pray them to stay home.
They don’t seem to know anything about ventilation, which has not been added in the last run of public health posters. Meanwhile, Germany, Osterreich, France are all re-confining.
These contradictory messages put all shops in an impossible situation: they can stay open according to the government, but they won’t get any customers because people are urged to stay home. Staying open will mean going out of business: maintaining costs while making no profits. Closing will be their responsibility, so no need for the federal government to compensate them financially like during the 1st wave.
That is the crux of the matter: money, the federal budget bottom-line, not the economy at large.
I was struggling to make sense of the federal council actions until I understood that. People blamed them for prioritizing the economy over health, but it could not be the case. It is well demonstrated by now that the faster the pandemic is brought to heel, the faster business can re-open safely and people get back to their normal way of life and spending.
It is not even political calculations: most political parties are represented within the federal council, so they will all bear the responsibility for the decisions. Plus, elections results overseas show that governments who protected the population first, also protected the economy and are re-elected in a land slide: Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, the Labor premier of Queensland in Australa (a woman too).
But once you look at their actions, not their words: ignoring scientific advice, reducing public servant salaries, no compensation for businesses that can “officially” stay open…
I wonder today if the personal responsibility of politicians can be called into question through a formal inquiry. At the end of it, not now, they should answer for the deaths, the sicks and the closed businesses their lack of actions led to.