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The restrictions on freedom passed in Britain remain relatively light compared with those in some other European countries, such as Italy, France and Spain, where enforcement has bordered on the repressive. In Hungary, Viktor Orban has sought to use the crisis for a power grab that would — in effect — have him ruling by diktat.
Those admiring the ruthless efficiency with which China controlled coronavirus by sealing off cities and confining people to their homes should remember that vital days in controlling the spread of Covid-19 were lost because Xi Jinping’s administration was pretending it didn’t exist. That is the difference between a totalitarian state and a democracy — in the latter it would have been far harder to conceal the truth. There have been few new infections in China recently, which the ruling Communist party is using as an advertisement for its methods.
Far better models for how to deal with coronavirus are provided by South Korea and Singapore, both of which have successfully tackled the epidemic without confining people to their homes. They succeeded through rigorous testing and isolation of those found to be carrying the virus: a so-called ‘smart lockdown’ rather than the crude measures of asking even healthy workers to stay at home for a fortnight if someone in their house develops a cold. This has meant even the health service has been deprived of key workers in an emergency. It is a poor substitute for proper testing.
When this crisis ends, there will have to be some serious thinking about how to prepare for any future pandemic. It is certain that there will be more viruses to come, and we need to work out how to handle them without damaging the economy or placing such drastic restrictions on personal freedom — including the freedom for children to be educated in schools. It may well be that today’s restrictions have been warranted; it may well be that they should be been introduced earlier. It’s clear that existing pandemic plans — which did not envisage lockdowns of such scale and did not think through the implications — need to be rewritten.
For the moment, with the virus still spreading and deaths sharply rising, the issue of liberty will seem a remote and irrelevant concern. In Madrid, an ice rink has been turned into a temporary morgue. In Lombardy, crematoriums have been working around the clock to cope with demand. No one there has time to debate the projected statistical death rates of coronavirus: now is the time to care for the sick and bury the dead. The country and the NHS are braced for an emergency: the government response, so far, has been proportionate to the anticipated threat. But as the threat subsides, the government should respond quickly: both in reviving the economy and restoring liberty.
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