The Perilous Reopening of European Countries

Laura Bassette

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Spain, France, Germany, and various other European countries have chosen to reopen.

As people can now visit hardware stores and resume sports, the European countries are reawakening. But is this really a good idea? 

There are many ways that this could go wrong. People could get infected at a much higher rate, and they could eventually go back into lock down making the relaxing of the lock down rules pointless. Or, people could follow the guidelines placed by their government and live a happy social-distanced life. 

 The stay-at-home orders induced by the Coronavirus has put the entire world on hold, not to mention the economy. Things such as water and toilet paper has flown off the shelves and it’s the government that is to blame.  

In my opinion, it is wrong to reopen the countries as the risk to being exposed to the virus is still high. At any point the virus can mutate and can be even more fatal than before. 

Letting the people out seems like a risk the many governments are willing to take. Even at the cost of the lives of their own people. 

One reason for which it is dangerous for governments to lift the ban is because cases would increase, and they would have to go back into lock down. Public surfaces such as stair rails and doorknobs have not been cleaned and could still contain the corona virus on it. 

Another reason for which it is dangerous for governments to lift the ban is because there will always be people who are susceptible to contracting the Coronavirus. They might have the Coronavirus and not know it. They would therefore be spreading the Coronavirus and ultimately reviving the exact thing that they were trying to prevent. 

Lastly, reopening the country would mean that shops and businesses would be reopened. Although it seems as though there is no downside for the people, the amount of paperwork that officials would have to do would be completely and utterly unbearable. 

Now, I’m not saying that they government is purposefully putting their people at risk as the rules are being relaxed.  

Just that there are other ways that they could alter the rules so that their people are able to have some sort of social interaction to some extent. 

One way they could alter the rules is by allowing age groups that are less susceptible to contracting the Coronavirus, while people more susceptible to contracting the corona virus stay safe and isolated at home. 

The government could also provide the public with touch-free public sanitation stations that could help with prevention. 

The final thing that governments could change in the rules is that they could close off some things to make social distancing possible and effective. Social distancing would be a complete failure if the distance necessary for social distancing was inadequate. 

One way that countries all around the world can open again is by putting up testing stations that will help identify if someone has the corona virus before it becomes too widespread. 

One country that is already doing this is South KoreaIt appears this is working because the number of infections has dropped to fewer than 50 new cases. 

Although it looks like staying at home seems safer, we can’t be in lock down forever. Humans are social beings. Being alone for a long time affects not only your mental but your physical state. Loneliness could also lead to illness. This would be bad especially since the reason we are in isolation is to avoid illness. Your immune system begins to respond differently to viruses which could eventually lead to them invading and ravaging your body. 

Social distancing seems like it can only last of a while. Although it helps us to avoid contracting the corona virus, long periods of it will really lead us to becoming weaker immune wise.