Colleagues in Strömstad Academy
This page was created in April 2020
We are today in a situation that few, if any, of us have experienced. Pandemics have occurred before, but not in this globally explosive way that we are experiencing now during the corona crisis. It is a result of globalization. Today, we humans are moving rapidly across the globe in a way that has never happened before.
There is much talk today about limiting people’s freedom of movement in order to try to prevent infection, to put people in ”quarantine”. Historically, the term has its origin in the Italian term ”quarantine,” meaning ”a forty-day episode.” To prove that there was no plague or other infectious disease on board, ships arriving in Europe with goods from distant countries, had to lie isolated outside the harbour for forty days before being let into the harbour. This may have been introduced as early as the 13th century in connection with the Black Death.
Quarantine for individuals is in Sweden today can be decided under the Infectious Protection Law, and areas can be put into “geographical quarantine”, decided by the Public Health Authority.
Many countries have made decisions that are markedly different from the Swedish approach, which so far has relied primarily on the individual’s own judgment and willingness to adhere to the recommendations/restrictions that are published daily in all our media by the Public Health Authority and politicians. These recommendations include, for example, that people over the age of seventy (these are generally more susceptible to the consequences of an infection), should, as far as possible avoid social contacts in the public space.
Strömstad Academy is an association with also senior members, but regardless of this, we take the authorities’ recommendations seriously, and all our members have been instructed by the Board to follow these as far as possible.
The Academy’s members therefore conduct their meetings today via the web, but participate as usual in media debates, plan for teaching, and write chronicles in Strömstad’s newspaper.
Finally, the Academy has a broad and deep knowledge in various scientific fields, which can be used to help society to both survive and recover from the ongoing pandemic. Ideas and suggestions from members can be put forward, for example, at the Discussion Forum which will shortly be presented on our Website.
Peter Fritzell, Chairman of the Strömstad Academy Board, and Lars Broman, Vice-Chancellor of Strömstad Academy, for the Board and elected representatives in Strömstad Academy www.stromstadakademi.se