Europe opens its borders, the US is cracking down again, and Brazil is bracing for the worst
Lesson summary
Hi there, thanks for joining us for Plain English lesson number 276. I’m Jeff; JR is the producer; and you can find this full lesson at PlainEnglish.com/276.
Coming up today: The world is in a strange spot in the coronavirus pandemic, and the current status in three regions shows just how different things are in different parts of the world. Europe is opening its borders to international travel; the US is lurching forward and back in its reopening; and Brazil could be headed for the worst of the virus. In the second half of the lesson today, we’ll talk about what it means to “downplay” something—a word frequently used in connection with the virus these days.
If you’re a Plain English Plus+ member, you have a great video lesson today. It’s about how to use the word “supposed to”. If you’re not quite sure how to use “he’s supposed to” or “I was supposed to”, then this is the video for you, and you can find that at PlainEnglish.com/276.
Coronavirus in three regions
As the coronavirus enters its seventh month in existence, three regions of the world are in distinctly different places.
Starting with the most optimistic, Europe: the governments of the European Union agreed to begin letting travelers enter the EU, but only from countries that have gotten the coronavirus under control. Those countries include Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and nine smaller countries. Chinese travelers may get permission soon, too. Notably missing are the United States and Russia, both of which lobbied hard to be on the list.
EU ministers created the list based on the health conditions in all the other countries and based on economic ties. Spain lobbied to include Morocco on the list, for example, since the two are so close geographically. But the more important criteria were health-related. To make it on the approved list, a country needed to have an infection rate close to or below that of the EU and infections needed to be declining, among other criteria.
The new rule applies to the EU-wide border. All individual countries will have the opportunity to create stronger border controls if they wish; Italy has already decided it will not open its borders to travelers from outside the EU. The EU will revisit the list of countries about every two weeks. Although borders are starting to open up to travelers, the move guarantees that the economic effects will continue to be felt throughout the rest of the year. About two million Americans visit Europe on vacation each year between May and September—and it looks like none of them will be able to visit and spend money this year.
America was absent from the list of permitted countries because while Europe is continuing to see a decline in cases, many US states are suffering a spike in cases. The US is a large and diverse country and many states have experienced the pandemic differently. Florida, despite its greying population, was not badly affected by the first wave; other southern states like Texas were similarly fortunate. More rural states escaped without much damage, too.
But all that is starting to change. Once Florida started allowing businesses to open, the number of cases started to surge. The governor says it was because people became complacent: after it fell out the news, he said, Floridians were less careful. The virus started to spread notably among younger people. Bars had opened, but Florida is in the uncomfortable position of having to re-impose restrictions. Bars are now open only to take-out food and Miami has a curfew from 10:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m.
The governor of Texas mandated that people wear face masks when they are in public buildings—a rule that he had previously resisted implementing. The state of Indiana is pausing its reopening plans. American states talk about their reopening plans in phases—each state confusingly has a different number and definition of phases—but Indiana was supposed to move to Phase 5 this weekend; instead, the governor created a Phase 4.5, where some restrictions on crowd sizes would remain. “We are living on virus time,” he said, acknowledging that the reopening will have to respond to the virus and its spread.
Europe suffered badly from the coronavirus, but appears to have managed its reopening well and has avoided a so-called second wave of infections. Many states in the US appear to have mis-timed their reopening plans and are suffering from a resurgence of the virus. The third region we’ll talk about today, Brazil, may be re-opening its cities at precisely the wrong moment.
In May, a research team at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro predicted that June would be the worst month of the pandemic. Despite that warning, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro started to relax restrictions on June 2. After a month, the death toll had risen by 70 percent over the previous month and new infections increased by 50 percent. The reopening is continuing, however: restaurants and bars are opening in Rio in July.
Belo Horizonte is going in the opposite direction. It was one of the first Brazilian cities to enter, and then emerge from, a lockdown. However, its mayor recently ordered non-essential businesses to close again after seeing a spike in deaths and hospitalizations. He said that in Belo Horizonte, they aren’t flat-earthers, a not-so-subtle swipe at Brazil’s president.
Brazil does not have the luxury of strict quarantines the way Europe and America do; its social safety net is not as strong and its citizens have much less of a financial buffer. Missing work imposes significant hardship on a large portion of the Brazilians who cannot work from home—the kind of hardship that most Europeans and Americans will never know.
Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has downplayed the risk of the virus; when the pandemic started, he said that the quarantine and economic shutdown would do more harm than the virus. He was well outside the mainstream of opinion around the world—and even in Brazil—when he started saying that. But many Brazilians are weary of the economic toll the virus is taking and are starting to agree with that message. Many people, especially those who run small restaurants and shops, are more afraid of staying home than of going out.
The world is in an awkward position, with some regions having significantly reduced infections; others still alternating between optimism and pessimism; and others living through the virus’s worst stages.
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