The Student Room Group

So strange......I switched from the UK to the Netherlands...

I moved from Nottingham to the Netherlands... Here there are barely any covid-19 restrictions... I'm in the North of the Netherlands... Which except for the city I'm in (Groningen) is pretty rural.

We have oncampus lectures....
There are no bubbles....
No real one way traffic oncampus...
The bars are very much open... Till about 5am...
Social distancing is not really practiced...
If you wear a mask, people may think your infected 😂.

There is covid-19 of course, roughly 50 cases a week for a city of 200,000..and Netherlands cases overall are rising much inline with the rest of Europe....

But regions aren't still in semi lockdown... The government isn't constantly making a big fuss...

It's just so odd I feel like I'm in such a different and funner world.

Though obviously my workload is a bit higher moving from undergrad to Master's.
(edited 3 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

It must be nice living under a competent government.
Original post by DiddyDec
It must be nice living under a competent government.

Or not. Sweeden took this approach and got hammered in terms of deaths. It is only the intellect of the population that stopped Sweeden becoming Brazil or the US.
Original post by ByEeek
Or not. Sweeden took this approach and got hammered in terms of deaths. It is only the intellect of the population that stopped Sweeden becoming Brazil or the US.

Still too early to say but right now Sweden is looking pretty good

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8722051/How-comeback-kid-Sweden-got-laugh-coronavirus.html
Original post by harrysbar
Still too early to say but right now Sweden is looking pretty good

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8722051/How-comeback-kid-Sweden-got-laugh-coronavirus.html


Oh dear. Why oh why do people insist on reading the woman hating, tragidy promoting Daily Fail?

It is difficult to compare Sweeden and the UK. However, comparing Sweeden to Norway or Denmark shows that those two other countries would have had three times as many cases and bearly broke their healthcare systems if they had followed Sweeden

https://partner.sciencenorway.no/epidemic-health-healthcare/comparing-norway-and-sweden-norwegian-coronavirus-measures-reduced-hospitalizations-drastically/1701510
Original post by ByEeek
Or not. Sweeden took this approach and got hammered in terms of deaths. It is only the intellect of the population that stopped Sweeden becoming Brazil or the US.

But the Swedish approach has saved their economy and is sustainable. They are not lurching from one crisis to other putting in some the most stupid rules ever imagined.

Sweden didn't become the next Brazil because they did actually monitor and put in measures to mitigate risk rather than denying the existence of the virus.

I would rather be living in Sweden than the UK.
Original post by ByEeek
Oh dear. Why oh why do people insist on reading the woman hating, tragidy promoting Daily Fail?

It is difficult to compare Sweeden and the UK. However, comparing Sweeden to Norway or Denmark shows that those two other countries would have had three times as many cases and bearly broke their healthcare systems if they had followed Sweeden

https://partner.sciencenorway.no/epidemic-health-healthcare/comparing-norway-and-sweden-norwegian-coronavirus-measures-reduced-hospitalizations-drastically/1701510

The point is Sweden are doing better than the U.K. and many other countries... talking about the Daily Mail is a whole other issue
Original post by DiddyDec

I would rather be living in Sweden than the UK.

I think we have to wait and see. Japan, Hong Kong and Israel all claimed some sort of victory for their tactics at one time or another only to realise that they haven't. Sweden's weekly peak has climbed for the last two weeks. The numbers are miniscule but it may be the start of things taking off again.

Unless there is a meaningful build up of immunity, there is no benefit in a future wave from having killed a lot of people in the previous wave. We will know if there is any greater level of immunity if the rate of growth in new cases is lower than elsewhere.
Original post by DiddyDec
But the Swedish approach has saved their economy and is sustainable. They are not lurching from one crisis to other putting in some the most stupid rules ever imagined.

Sweden didn't become the next Brazil because they did actually monitor and put in measures to mitigate risk rather than denying the existence of the virus.

I would rather be living in Sweden than the UK.


I think it depends what you call sustainable. Had we taken the Swedish approach we would have been savaged. They got away with it because most Sweeds were sensible enough to stay at home without being told.
Original post by harrysbar
The point is Sweden are doing better than the U.K. and many other countries... talking about the Daily Mail is a whole other issue


You cant compare. Our economy is vast different to Sweeden and they are a tiny population of 10 million to our 70. Better to compare Sweeden to other Nordic countries for a better understanding.
Original post by ByEeek
You cant compare. Our economy is vast different to Sweeden and they are a tiny population of 10 million to our 70.

You can compare by 1 million of population - they have more known cases per 1 million people but we have more deaths and has been said already, their economy has not suffered to anywhere near the same degree as ours
Original post by ByEeek
I think it depends what you call sustainable. Had we taken the Swedish approach we would have been savaged. They got away with it because most Sweeds were sensible enough to stay at home without being told.


A Darwinian cull sounds like a pretty good idea to me.
Original post by Realitysreflexx
I moved from Nottingham to the Netherlands... Here there are barely any covid-19 restrictions... I'm in the North of the Netherlands... Which except for the city I'm in (Groningen) is pretty rural.

We have oncampus lectures....
There are no bubbles....
No real one way traffic oncampus...
The bars are very much open... Till about 5am...
Social distancing is not really practiced...
If you wear a mask, people may think your infected 😂.

There is covid-19 of course, roughly 50 cases a week for a city of 200,000..and Netherlands cases overall are rising much inline with the rest of Europe....

But regions aren't still in semi lockdown... The government isn't constantly making a big fuss...

It's just so odd I feel like I'm in such a different and funner world.

Though obviously my workload is a bit higher moving from undergrad to Master's.


It's worth saying that the political difference is probably ingrained into the system. The Netherlands government consists of four fairly weak parties so anything controversial is probably not going to happen.
Original post by nulli tertius
I think we have to wait and see. Japan, Hong Kong and Israel all claimed some sort of victory for their tactics at one time or another only to realise that they haven't. Sweden's weekly peak has climbed for the last two weeks. The numbers are miniscule but it may be the start of things taking off again.

Unless there is a meaningful build up of immunity, there is no benefit in a future wave from having killed a lot of people in the previous wave. We will know if there is any greater level of immunity if the rate of growth in new cases is lower than elsewhere.

But really a minimal amount of deaths have occurred in Japan, Hong Kong, and even Israel in comparison. UK figures are absolutely disturbing, especially for a country that attempts to educate the world with some of the most highly ranked and expensive medical institutes and universities found on the planet.
Original post by Realitysreflexx
But really a minimal amount of deaths have occurred in Japan, Hong Kong, and even Israel in comparison. UK figures are absolutely disturbing, especially for a country that attempts to educate the world with some of the most highly ranked and expensive medical institutes and universities found on the planet.



I am afraid you haven’t grasped the point.

Whether Sweden has done well or not is not affected by poorly the U.K. has done in comparison with Japan.
Original post by Realitysreflexx
But really a minimal amount of deaths have occurred in Japan, Hong Kong, and even Israel in comparison. UK figures are absolutely disturbing, especially for a country that attempts to educate the world with some of the most highly ranked and expensive medical institutes and universities found on the planet.

Data suggests it’s because their outbreak was much less severe albeit their testing rates are very low.
Reply 16
Original post by ByEeek
Or not. Sweeden took this approach and got hammered in terms of deaths. It is only the intellect of the population that stopped Sweeden becoming Brazil or the US.

It had higher than its neighbours sure but it was hardly a blood bath...
Original post by ByEeek
Or not. Sweeden took this approach and got hammered in terms of deaths. It is only the intellect of the population that stopped Sweeden becoming Brazil or the US.


Eat out to help out; being allowed to mix with five other households under the rule of six; encouraging people back to the office instead of continuing to work from home; letting COVID-19 tear through care homes because of bad advice etc.

Think I'd take my chances in the Netherlands to be honest.
Original post by Napp
It had higher than its neighbours sure but it was hardly a blood bath...


If a terrorist set ofg a bomb in Sweeden and killed 5800 people it would be seen as the world's biggest terror attack and world war three would be well in progress by now.

Yet you dismiss it as not a blood bath. How many people must die before you take it seriously?
Original post by ByEeek
If a terrorist set ofg a bomb in Sweeden and killed 5800 people it would be seen as the world's biggest terror attack and world war three would be well in progress by now.

Yet you dismiss it as not a blood bath. How many people must die before you take it seriously?

The people of the UK don't seem to take it too seriously either even after 40K deaths, but let's be real (guessing) 50% of those where in care homes. Those under 50 have such a tiny chance of dying except for anecdotal occurrences of usually lower income people already in poor health due to the cycle of lack of education and low pay sector seen around the world and sadly still obvious in developed economies.

Quick Reply