My perspective from Munich

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May 7, 2020, 9:27 PM

We here in Bavaria were the hardest hit state and have accordingly been the most cautious. We have been Home-Schooling since Mid March. Semi-Lockdown started at the end of March. Grocery, Gas & Pharmacies were pretty much all that was open until last week. The Audi Plant in Ingolstadt was closed for a while but are ratcheting up again. BMW Plant in Dingolfing was closed at one point as well. Larger stores are opening again, all with reduced capacity and social distancing. Masks required in stores & public Transportation. This weekend is the first time you can officially meet up with other families. We could only meet one person from outside our family or household and that had to be outdoors. Has been trying for the kids.
I am fortunate enough to be able to home office during this time and hold down the fort. My wife is a physician in charge of an ICU and was responsible for ramping up capacity in advance of a spike. Her hospital saw increased traffic but was not slammed, thank God. I do think that the early and orderly response kept things from getting out of hand. I’ve never been a huge fan of our Minister President here in Bavaria, but he has handled this quite well. He has had weekly addresses with sober commentary and updates without sugar coating the situation. Other states wanted to open up quicker but Bayern has decided to play it safe, as we had it tougher than other states in the north. School will start back next week for those about to graduate and older elementary school kids moving on to the upper school next year (final grades More important). Others will return On the 18th but probably in shifts as they will be spread out for social distancing. This will be a scheduling nightmare.
All in all, it has been uncomfortable for sure. However, this is pretty much a 100 year occurrence, so by that standard, it ain’t so bad.

Just my $0.02 from across the pond.

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there in the '90's the German people were a much more disciplined society than the USA. They ruthlessly obeyed rules and directives as opposed to us Americans who tend to follow rules less rigidly at times.

True story - One evening at about midnight, I was driving back to my apartment in Sommerach in a torrential downpour. I was probably the only car on the road for miles as I had not seen another vehicle once I got out of Kitizingen and onto the smaller country roads to Sommerach. As I was stopped at a traffic light in a small village just before Sommerach, I noticed a couple of German folks standing at a distant crosswalk getting drenched in the rainfall. I knew these were Germans because they were patiently waiting on the light system to cycle before crossing the road. If those folks had been Americans at the crosswalk - they would have said "screw it" and ran across the crosswalk in a hurry to get out of the rain.

So I can understand that the Germans are willing to take some additional risk with COVID-19 - if they put out a rule you can be guaranteed the vast majority of them are going to follow it to the letter.

WSJ article tells of 80% of Germany Factories staying open..

I bet their media does not try to keep them in a constant state of panic either***

Re: "at least they are not

Germans***

Looks like they flattened the curve

Re: WSJ article tells of 80% of Germany Factories staying open..

Germany has more than twice the population of any state

Do you know what continent Germany is in?***

Re: Do you know what continent Germany is in?***

aInT nOoNe DyInG uP rOuNd HeRe!

My perspective from Munich

But what about the people in the Goose Creek Lowe’s everyday***

I can't speak to how Germany is today, but when I lived

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