According to Alain Berset, Switzerland’s minister of health, the public mood has changed over the last six months, reports the newspaper Le Matin.
The tetchy public response to last week’s mistake by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) when it published an erroneous analysis of data on the sources of SARS-CoV-2 infections reflects a change in public mood, said Berset – the data showed families were the most frequent source of infection not nightclubs as previously reported by FOPH.
Irritability and fatigue are on the rise with the end of the pandemic no where in sight, said the minister in an interview with the NZZ am Sonntag. At the peak of the crisis in March and April we saw a period of unity. Now we sense nerves are frayed and that it doesn’t take much for people to get angry, he said.
In response to the FOPH’s error, Berset said that those managing the government response to the pandemic are only human and losing confidence in the organisation because of this mistake would be extreme, especially given it had had no impact on health policy.
On a more positive note he praised Switzerland for coping well with the first wave. Swiss hospitals were not overloaded despite a significant number of infections.
He also pointed out that Switzerland is no longer rationing tests and the daily numbers are far from peak levels when tests was limited.
More on this:
Le Matin article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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