Our joint efforts are absolutely, absolutely crucial, and so I dare hardly say what I intend to say today. But now I say so.
This is how Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) made the promise that if we stay home for two more weeks and the numbers continue to be good, then the government will begin to open the society gradually again.
But was it wise now?
Yes, says Michael Bang Petersen, who researches the psychology of infection and conspiracy theories and is the head of the research project HOPE, which among other things maps the Danes’ behavior during the corona crisis.
We saw relatively quickly a metal fatigue that had settled in the population. Optimism had begun to decline and fear began to rise. There was also an extremely rapid decline in how many people had contact with friends and family, he says.
It started to hurt pretty quickly in the homes.
And exactly that is a good reason to tell the Danes that there is light at the end of the tunnel, he believes.
Now we go into the long, cool move, where it is important that people keep the spirits up. We need optimism to endure, says Michael Bang Petersen, who calls it the fight against exhaustion and the courage of people saying, “now I can do no more”.
New prospects
Michael Bang Petersen, who is a professor at Aarhus University on a daily basis, did not expect the prime minister to be ready to reopen parts of the community even after Easter.
But with the new forecast presented by the State Serum Institute at the press conference yesterday, which shows that we are well on our way out of the more flat curve and not up the steep curve, such as Italy, it makes good sense, he says.
