Ignorance

I apologize beforehand as this will be another post related to the current coronavirus crisis. Thanks @twizzle for his post “Lockdown” the comment I left there basically led to this post. :)

So, I don’t get it. The Austrian Government is working since the start of March to get this coronavirus under control. Since the beginning, they told the people in this country to watch out and take special hygiene measures.

They’ve also told people to reduce social contacts as much as possible. What did people? Buy toilet paper like it wasn’t produced anymore and generally got together.

Travel warnings where published, laws were enforced.

Even my father thought it can’t be that bad. My parents planned and paid for a motorbike trip through Spain from last Friday to the next one. They entered the plane last Friday night and arrived a few hours later in Malaga.

A few hours later the Austrian Government declared that flights back from Spain won’t be done anymore, starting next Monday.

My mother called me a little bit later that day and asked what she should do. She couldn’t reach someone from the foreign ministry. I looked on the website of the ministry and found another number she could try. As my parents aren’t the only Austrians currently outside of Austria, the number was blocked almost continuously.

I’m not sure how long she waited, but eventually, she got through. People told her they would need to take the next possible flight back home. My father called me to complain about why the Government didn’t warn a few days earlier (which they did, but they didn’t declare a high-level travel warning back then).

How could the Government know that the situation would escalate that quickly?

For me the corona crisis as a natural disaster. You can’t blame anyone for a natural disaster.

Why the hell are people so ignorant nowadays?