When the Covid-19 outbreak began 2020, I was living in the Lisboa area in Portugal. The measures there were quite drastic: All stores closed but for groceries and pharmacies. A limited number of people got to enter, all used sanitizers, and lines were kept in order by the police, who also made checkpoints between villages. They even put plastic foil on card-readers. Everybody wore masks and avoided commuting. As of today, Portugal got 19 000 deaths and 1.5 million cases.

Now in 2022, I am in Sweden. I got tested several times, have no symptoms, and all came back negative. I got three vaccine shots and watch the society pretty much function without any visible restrictions. And since nobody, or only few, are wearing masks, should I? Sweden got 15 000 deaths and 1.4 million cases. Both Sweden and Portugal have a little more than 10 million inhabitants.

So, what is working against this virus? Is it even something we need to learn to live with, like others? At the bottom of this crisis, lies the question of travel and import/export. What is necessary and what can stop? People need to be allowed to go and live where they have their optimum health, their optimum life, then there would be less need of transportation, both for goods and people.

Can I move please?

Photo from an old cable car in Portugal.