As I spent the last few months in Sweden, my COVID-19 crisis has been quite atypical. Indeed, I have been really lost between following Sweden's strategy to get youth herd immunity and following the rest of the world's messages to stay at home. Furthermore, I had to form my opinion about my life in Sweden during this crisis and impose myself some constraints. Consequently, I had to make some choices. I decided not to go back to my home country and stay in Stockholm, while voluntarily cancelling all my Swedish trips and visits. Therefore, I think the first thing that happened for me in this crisis was to make important choices, choices that you do not make every day.

 

Many things have changed in the world today. A positive change is the impact of this containment on the climate and environment. The reduction in the use of aircrafts, boats, trains, cars etc. reduced significantly the amount of carbon emissions. The withdrawal of humans in parks and forests led to the increase of fauna and flora in those areas. In addition, people developed awareness of the importance of having local shops. This crisis also led to a lot of solidarity. Many great initiatives have taken place, including people going grocery shopping for elderly or infected people and people taking care of children having parents working in the medical field. Some people also bought take away food from restaurants which could not open anymore. In general, people got really aware of the importance of his/her surrounding to be self-sufficient and therefore helped the local shops to survive this crisis.

 

Looking at Switzerland’s post COVID-19 future, I hope that many things will be remembered from this crisis. I wish people will be more conscious about the fact that death is unpredictable and the richness of having a healthy family, but also the importance of having good and accessible medical care, of good neighbours' relations, and of not being too dependent on one big supermarket which can close or have a queue of several hours. Overall, I hope people will remember the positive social and environmental impacts of the COVID-19 crisis and keep valuing them for as long as they can.

 

Sincerely,

 

Fannie K.