I’ve been monitoring the situation in Europe both for personal and professional reasons and I will try to provide a write-up about school openings in various countries.
@homerdog: thanks for the explanation. I can understand their thought process better.
@yearstogo:
I unfortunately can, because the situation’s considered so bad by European standards that Swedes are still banned from travelling to other European countries, including Norway and Denmark. Malmö is especially irrate because they behaved like the Danes and blame Stockholm’s “maverick” approach (their term) for the restrictions they’re now under, especially as Danes are free to cross the bridge but they’re not.
While comprehensive schools (K-9) were open, high schools, vocational schools, and universities closed and went remote. Keep in mind the typical Swedish elementary classroom is big and airy, with 12 to 18 kids (student:teacher ratio in Sweden is similar to that of American private schools’, or public schools in North Dakota or Maine) and a habit of spending much time out of doors. Even without the pandemic, parents could enroll their kids in a month-long “forest school”/“outdoors school” with its own “outdoors learning” curriculum.
There had to be official apologies, not just about the nursing homes (which indeed was a disaster) but the general “maverick” choice, although Swedes are still generally supportive of it since they felt they did behave responsibly without a mandate: they stayed away from bars and restaurants even if those remained open, kept their kids home if they had sniffles, worked from home whenever possible or bicycled to work when it wasn’t. General criticism focused on masks (many feel there should have been a mandate, not just a recommendation).
Tegnell, the main architect of the plan, is under fierce criticism; there’s an official “Congress” inquiry. In June he admitted he might not have advised the exact same plan, although he walked that back 3 days later somewhat by saying in hindsight he’d have advised something in between “personal responsibility” and “total lockdown”.
Sweden saw 12 times the number of deaths Norway did and got as badly hit economically, meaning that not only did they not benefit in any way but also made a choice that resulted in thousands of needless deaths. Tegnell is now reduced to arguing that the strategy built “collective [“herd”] immunity”, for which he got major pushback from most Swedish scientists who say his assertion is impossible to prove scientifically (contamination is down, but could be the effect of Swedes being physically apart, having left for the islands or their vacation homes away from the cities + increased voluntary wearing of masks + weather conditions; in addition, right now we don’t really understand if “immunity” exists/is possible, as the data would indicate “immunity” is temporary and seems to fade after 2 to 3 months – it could be longer-lasting for people who got sick in May or June but there’s not enough data; we still don’t know whether it fades like for others where we need “boosters” after a decade or works like the flu vaccine, which requires a shot every year…)
Scandinavian countries were “lucky” in that they didn’t have any superspreader events and most of Europe “locked down” before the virus circulated freely onto their territories, so that after the 8-10 weeks of lockdown it was virtually suppressed. Masks can be mandated locally depending on local assessments (if R=/>1 for instance) but since the virus is currently not circulating it’s not vital.
wrt college students and parties:
several clusters have been linked to young adults partying. One event in particular seems especially portentous wrt the college situation&college students in the US:
a cluster of 41 infections was linked to an indoors bar party in the seaside town of Quiberon, with 277 youths in attendance, all 18-25. Alarm was raised when the young man was diagnosed with Covid on a Monday (he had a headache on Friday, took a painkiller and went to work, then again on Saturday when he went to the party; since the headache hadn’t disappeared on Monday and had turned into a fever, he went to see a doctor who ordered an immediate Covid19 test). Contact tracing led to 22 people showing positive results. Immediately general testing was put in place not just for the 277 but for the entire population whom they might have spread it to.
Young people found at another packed bar explained that they’re not opposed to masks but 1° masks are not practical when drinking and dancing and 2° it’s impossible to distance when dancing in a tightly packed club. Which, duh, is the reason such indoors parties are prohibited.
Immediate contact tracing was put in place along with drive-by (well, walk by) testing for all people in town + anyone who wanted one.
Person zero was a young man with a summer job in a bakery, which he had to leave due to his diagnostic; he feels he&his friends are being unfairly targeted (“we didn’t mean anything by it, we were just having fun”…) and after his 2-week quarantine, he went back to his hometown to finish his summer vacation with his family, 100 miles away (and may be going to another resort with them). 81 people have now been traced since the original 41 infected others. The bar owner who organized the “soiree dansante” (! the wording was chosen on purpose to obscure the event, as this tends to evoke “tea dances” or to denote seniors…) had to close his bar for 4 months (=till the off season) since all indoors parties are prohibited; if he reopens before december, he’ll get his license revoked. In addition, the town now prohibits beach parties and enforces beach closures from 9pm till 7 am with patrols. Masks are required both indoors and outdoors, except on the beach or in the water (PSA: you shouldn’t wear a wet mask).
Right now there are daily news segments warning young people, because the rate of infected young people has grown to 8/100,000 (double what it was in June) - although two youths were interviewed today, saying "it’s unfair, how are we supposed to know this stuff? " “Well, there are signs everywhere and TV announcements” “I mean, it’s not on Insta nor on TikTok so how could we be expected to know about it?” “Again, there’s a sign. RIGHT. THERE.” (not verbatim exchange but gist of it. o_O)
Similar outbreaks linked to young adult parties have been reported in Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Barcelona, and other European popular with vacationers.
Therefore, one aspect of controlling outbreaks on college campuses will likely be linked to enforcing rules banning parties 1° indoors 2° with lots of people … which, due to the nature of college students, would mean college need to 1° dedicate outdoors areas for parties and 2° very strictly restrict the number of students allowed in 3° with lots and lots of messaging on social media, both official and unofficial. 