Thread by @m_sciencerocks

With my partner's family in Czechia, I keep an eye on their situation. No substitute for a proper analysis, but here's my personal perspective as a mum of kids, separated from their grandparents not by an iron curtain, but by a toxic atmosphere of public distrust. 1/n

I started to worry in late summer, when our family would happily send pictures of full indoor concert halls, family parties (we declined), and indoor gatherings. With very low numbers, everyone felt it was over. Remember the false sense of security in Austria? Take that times 10.

The wrong sense of safety was exaggerated by the narrative of the government that their hard spring response was what had brought them into a winning position. (Guess who needed to win an election in October.)

The problem was while the spring response was successful in bringing (low) numbers down, it was also very harsh on the economy, and perceived as exaggerated by many in hindsight. It exhausted businesses to the extent they could not imagine ever entering another lockdown.

Remember the crazy Tyrolean lady who said they would simply open everything, no matter what the rules are? Well in Czechia many restaurant owners did just that.

Of course numbers had long started to climb, and by the time of the elections, it was clear another harsh lockdown would be needed. At that time, public trust had dwindled.

A key factor for the low acceptance of control measures is prime minister Babis, hated by almost everyone who doesn't vote for him.

When I told my partner's dad about how people in Austria voted against the nuclear power plant in the 70s - not because they were against nuclear power, but they wanted to vote chancellor Kreisky out of office - he could immediately relate.

Many people simply disdaining policies, reasonable or not, because of their distrust in the leaders. It gets worse because of the federal structure of the Czech republic, with state senators often opposing federal politics (sounds familiar, Austria?)

What strikes me most is the lack of learning from wave to wave. In December, when the worst of the second wave was over, they immediately opened restaurants. Had to undo this a few days later. But of course, the next wave was already forming.

At that time the counting of waves actually becomes blurry with no real troughs between the waves.
Whenever we talk to my partner's parents I'm not really sure if they get just how bad the situation is, in international comparison.

I don't want to tell them head-on and maybe it's just their strategy to keep their sanity. But usually all we get from them is shrugging things off. Luckily they have been spared so far and their only real personal issue is boredom.

They live on the countryside, and their generation's English isn't nearly good enough to read international media. And the Czech media? Quite caught up in the disputes about Babis as a person.

Babis, who had made a fortune as a businessman (and EU-lawsuits against him for fraud) also nourishes distrust that some of the pandemic response is plain business-making of a few kšeftáři (if you're from Austria try to pronounce that and see if you'll recognize the word)

No wonder. When I checked the czech news page today I got 5(!) ads of different private FFP2 mask retailers, the design of the ads reminiscent of spam viagra ads.

And today? Highest numbers worldwide (again), exponential growth for the last month, hospitals are as full as it gets. Reports of an overproportional intake of young people in ICUs, but due to lacking sequencing it's unclear if and how this relates to the new variants.

Contact tracing is overwhelmed, vaccination going as slowly as everywhere else (but hey! partner's greatgrandmother in a care home got her jabs, yesss!)

And the media still seem to be oblivious. Today's headlines: "Will this lead to a hard lockdown?" - as if there was an alternative.

In mid December, when for a couple of days the Czech numbers were below the Austrian, I cried because of the travel restrictions on the Austrian side, which meant we couldn't be together for Christmas. Today I'm happy that the borders are closed.

I keep telling them they will be able to see the kids during the next holidays. Now I'm hoping for late summer to work out.

What I think we can learn from the Czech story (even more than from the Austrian, which seems like a lighter shade of the same color) is that there is one ingredient

which maybe determines more than any other how a country fares in the pandemic: whether leaders honestly put people's well-being first, and whether they can bring it across that they do.
On that note: Maybe we should read more threads on Jacinda Ardern.