When Mathieu von Rohr, Head of Foreign Affairs at SPIEGEL, took the train from Hamburg to Milan last summer, he had the impression that he was traveling through three Corona realities.
In Germany you had to wear a mask on the train.
In Italy you had to wear a mask in the fresh air on and off the train.
In Switzerland, his home country, however, it seemed “as if the virus didn't exist.
On the train you were even looked at with pity when you put on a face mask. "
This relaxed attitude of the Swiss well into late autumn - no hard lockdown, rather cautious restrictions on gastronomy, opening of the ski slopes, fun pools, brothels - now seems to have serious consequences:
The number of infections first shot up, at times they were twice as high per capita as in the USA and are now leveling off at a high level, most recently they were still twice as high as in Germany.
The intensive care beds fill up quickly, the hospitals are reaching their capacity limits.
The reproduction value is well above 1.
Health experts, chief physicians at university hospitals, even the federal task force, are calling for significantly tougher measures.
Politics is moving slowly at first.
In the current episode of "Eight Billion" Mathieu von Rohr and Walter Mayr, SPIEGEL correspondent in Vienna - who recently went on a trip to Switzerland, find out why Switzerland in particular is having such a hard time with a fast and effective corona strategy Corona-Parallelwelt opened to St. Gallen and spoke to cable car operators, doctors and canton politicians there.
For both, it is clear that the Swiss are very well aware of the seriousness of the situation in which they have maneuvered themselves.
"In order to understand the problem, you have to think about two things: the Swiss political system and the more liberal mentality of the Swiss," says von Rohr.
"The political system, which is based on balance and power-breaking, guarantees good governance in good times - but it doesn't help in a crisis."
Icon: The mirror