CORONAVIRUS Q&A
Henry Samuel, our Paris correspondent, and Nick Squires, Rome correspondent, answer your questions on how the pandemic is affecting Europe and what lessons Britain could learn. Peter Whitehead Q Isn’t an even more draconian “short, sharp shock” solution going to be more effective now than the clearly strong but ineffective approach being implemented on the continent? A
Henry Samuel writes: Hundreds of French doctors are in agreement with you and yesterday released a petition in Le Parisien calling for “total lockdown” along the lines you suggest. However, France’s state council has rejected this idea, pointing out that it could end up in people not getting proper access to food. “Western democracies will never go as far as China” is what some are saying. That said, it called for stricter rules on non-essential tasks out of the house.
Also, we are told it is a little early to say how “ineffective” confinement measures in France are proving because there is a lag of around two weeks between implementing them and a drop in deaths, given the incubation period.
The question remains: how do we end confinement without seeing cases rocket again? Will countries have to wait until effective treatment is found or a vaccine? The latter is unlikely to be available until next year. Anon, via Whatsapp Q How has the rest of Europe prevented crazy hoarding? A HS: Hoarding happened in France early on and shops suddenly had no more pasta, rice, eggs and lavatory roll. The government issued appeals saying France was self-sufficient in terms of food and that no one would go hungry. Supermarkets banned people buying more than a certain number of basic foodstuffs. It has now quietened down. Also, in Paris, bakers and grocers remain open, which definitely helped calm nerves.
Nick Squires writes: Yes, I think all countries go through the same phases.
Panic sets in and people strip the supermarkets, but then common sense kicks in and governments assure people that there will not be shortages. That is what we have seen here in Italy. I hope it will happen in the UK.
Clive Norton, via Whatsapp Q How will Covid-19 affect the euro and the EU in the long term? A
NS: European solidarity has taken a big knock. Countries closing borders and cancelling flights is anathema to the whole European project. Italy was furious earlier this month when the European Central Bank appeared to rule out measures to protect Rome from the effects of additional borrowing.
Italy is going to need all the economic help it can get. That will mean asking Brussels for the relaxing of spending rules. So having a decent relationship with the EU will still count for a lot.
HS: It has not been the EU’S finest hour. Dominique Reynié, head of the French foundation of political innovation, even predicted in Le Figaro that the current crisis could prove “fatal to the European Union”.
The EU’S inability to produce, for example, ventilators and face masks, is a wake-up call against offshoring such strategically vital products, although it must be underlined that member states have always insisted they keep total control of their national health systems.