Don’t expect this to tell scientific facts about Corona virus from this post. Finland went to partial lock down mode last Thursday. Big events are cancelled until end of May. There is recommendation not to travel abroad. Social distancing is encouraged. Gyms have been closed. This was done while situation was still in control. I think it still is but experts don’t think it can be contained so we went delaying epidemic mode. You probably have seen flattening the curve graph. This is what we are doing in Finland. I think it will work here because Finnish people have trained social distancing since forever.
It is interesting to see how different countries have reacted to the pandemic. Finnish government has listened scientists and experts and done sensible things when they needed to be done. It is nice to live in country with competent leadership. Besides one party our political parties are practical and listen experts. There is this thing called “winter war spirit”. Name could be better but it means Finnish people can work together when needed. There aren’t too many people who try to distract us from achieving our common goal. We just shut up and do what needs to be done. Might sound strange outside Finland but that is how small country can survive in big bad world.
In Finland some businesses started to react even before Thursday when Finland went to partial lock down. It is because we are from one to few weeks behind rest of the Europe in this and international businesses have reacted based on what has happened where they operate. It is weird to watch situation in United States where the guy who should be in charge tries to downplay pandemic as hoax and businesses and local officials had to do what needs to be done. What is even weirder some see actions to limit pandemic as attack against the guy who should be in charge. United States’ situation looks better than it is currently because they haven’t done tests anywhere close to what is done elsewhere. That will change in near future when the who should be in charge finally had to let others do what needs to be done.
I hope when this is all over people around the world realize it does matter who they elect to lead them and scientific consensus is more reliable than guy who is good at talking. Pandemic has show so far most people start to trust science when lives are on the line. Not everyone though but most even if they are anti-science normal times.
About hoarding. I can’t justify people buying as much toilet paper as they have done. It has gone beyond what makes any sense. But hoarding canned food makes more sense when you start to think about it. In Finland recommendation is to have reserve food and water for three days. That went to two weeks in one day. So people started to collect new recommendation reserve same time. Shops were prepared for it. Some people want to have moral high ground for not getting reserves to new recommendation. Not everyone had two weeks reserve before this. Before Corona there wasn’t realistic need for two weeks reserve. We don’t have crisis or natural disasters lasting several days.