Italy to Speedily Abandon Mind Virus Lockdown, Bend the Knee to Sweden’s Open Model

Conte has announced a gradual reopening of Italy starting next Monday. However, reading the schedule it becomes apparent it’s not very gradual at all, instead it is quite quick:

Italy has outlined plans to ease the restrictions it imposed seven weeks ago to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the measures would be relaxed from 4 May, with people being allowed to visit their relatives in small numbers.

• People will be allowed to move around their own regions – but not between different regions
• Funerals are set to resume, but with a maximum of 15 people attending, and ideally to be carried out outdoors
• Individual athletes can resume training, and people can do sports not only in the vicinity of their homes but in wider areas
• Bars and restaurants will reopen for takeaway service from 4 May – not just delivery as now – but food must be consumed at home or in an office
• Hairdressers, beauty salons, bars and restaurants are expected to reopen for dine-in service from 1 June
• More retail shops not already opened under the earliest easing measures will reopen on 18 May along with museums and libraries
• Sports teams will also be able to hold group training from 18 May

In the space of just 4 weeks from May 4th until June 1st Italy will go from a full lockdown to another Sweden where even bars and restaurants are open for dine-in. The remaining major difference will be that schools in Italy will remain closed, but then by June 1st the school year will be nearly over anyway.

Here is one thing to keep in mind. By June 1st coronavirus will not have disappeared, and covid-positive Italians will not have stopped dying. Yet Italy will have abandoned lockdowns confirming that they were never needed in the first place.

And another thing. There was a great deal of outrage among the doomsayers that Sweden dared to buck the trend and stick with a much more moderate approach to countering the virus. There was pressure on the Swedish health authorities from abroad to give in to fear, but in the end, it isn’t Sweden adopting the European model. On the contrary, what we see is the continent bending the knee to Sweden and switching to its model.

Not just Italy, but most of Europe is now in the process of gradual re-opening (France is re-opening schools starting May 11) that will see it become much like Sweden.

It’s what they should have done from the start (albeit following in the Belarusian model would have been still superior but entirely too much to hope for).