But once people realized that this is going to be real bad if it continues unchecked, behaviour changed a lot IMO, even in regions that had very little virus activity.
True, mask wearing is still a problem, and you could see lots of people doing outside activities even during the worst part of the lock down. But as luck would have it, outside infections seem to play almost no epidemiological role. Turns out not wearing masks on the street or going for a Sunday hike on crowded paths isn't a big deal, and in retrospect I'm glad that our lock-down wasn't quite as limiting as in other parts of Europe.
I wish masks were mandatory on public transport, though.
The mask wearers look rather foolish because the data is by now very clear that this is no worse than any other year's flu. It's just not a dangerous disease. The hype is illusory, the models were wrong. The barriers in restaurants and perspex in supermarkets is as far as it goes and even that looks over the top.
as luck would have it, outside infections seem to play almost no epidemiological role
But is it luck? Or is it that the Swiss people reached the correct conclusions much faster than the supposed experts advising the world? As you say, the behaviour was correct, and the moment the similarities in behaviour to other common viruses became apparent, that wasn't irrational.
I wish masks were mandatory on public transport, though.
Please no. Virtually nobody has been doing this and cases have now hit zero anyway so why would it have ever mattered? When will we learn that practically every piece of supposedly expert advice during this pandemic has been wrong? The wisdom of the crowds is far better here than the wisdom of the academics.
I saw it long time ago as normal in south east Asia and it looked like a fine example of compassion towards rest of the population. Compared to usual west when people often go about their business, not caring much about others ie in public transport, schools or open offices. Only now it became acceptable in otherwise advanced place like Switzerland, till now one often faced real persecution, mocking and overall rejection from large parts of society.
Rest of your comment is unfortunately pure garbage, not worth any feedback.
see "Wöchentliche Todesfälle in der Schweiz", and remember the red curve is with measures, the greys without. Maybe you haven't had a friend's uncle die of covid. It could have been much worse; I think we got lucky.
Also see my other comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23439687
That's a massive overstatement. I live in Geneva, one of the worst hit cantons (they say around 10% infection rate). Way too many people for a long time simply didn't care, the list of personal anecdotes is way too long to post here.
We all were seeing what is happening few kms south from our border, and government did nothing for almost 2 weeks. It was seriously ridiculous, all restaurants and concerts packed, when 50km south Italian hospitals were already flooded and news was everywhere. There was vote on top level of government which ended up in favor of keeping business opened, because money. People rarely using face masks, even during hardest hits not even half of supermarket shoppers wore masks, on streets barely anybody. Most of the supermarket staff didn't use any mask either.
Generally German-speaking parts were much less affected, I've heard many personal stories from friends that were verbally attacked and mocked on streets and shops for wearing masks (locals mockingly start coughing behind them in shop and rest of the staff having a blast). I know of several people that were fired back in march/april because they came to work in simple face masks due to them being immune-deficient, and management decided to fire them on spot for 'spreading panick', no discussion (if you are blue collar foreigner here, sometimes locals treat you like disposable piece of shit and don't even try to hide it).
Once laws were changed people started behaving a bit more sane, but far from ideal - many people on streets and parks completely ignoring 2 meter rule (even 1 meter). I saw an old guy sitting on bench in the park, coughing like hell, no mask, while on phone having laughs how other people avoided him, even police patrol which didn't even bother to talk to him.
How well this country fares now, despite all of this gives me hope that it ain't that bad with covid. Swiss didn't 'beat' it due to great behavior they showed, in contrary. My home country was much more prudent and restriction were quick and followed by almost eveyrbody, and they ended up with 5% of the Swiss infection rate, despite being of similar size. Of course it could be that it was still stellar behavior en Suisse compared to what common Italians or Spaniards showed, this I can't compare.