The Economist - USA (2020-03-21)

TheEconomistMarch 21st 2020 15

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S

ometimes peoplecan be a bit of a disap-

pointment to their politicians. On

March 12th Emmanuel Macron, addressing

the French nation on the fight against co-

vid-19, appealed to their sense of “national

solidarity”. In asking them to follow basic

health advice and stay at home as much as

possible, the president said, he was count-

ing on their “individual and collective dis-

cipline”. Individually and collectively,

much of the country went on to spend a

rather sunny early spring weekend wan-

dering around parks with friends and

shopping in crowded street markets. Mr

Macron returned to their television

screens on March 16th singularly unim-

pressed. “Not only are you not protecting

yourselves,” he admonished the nation:

“You are not protecting others.” 

And so the state stepped in. From mid-

day on March 17th onwards, everyone leav-

ing home required a signed attestation—

hand-written, or printed out from the inte-

rior ministry’s website—that they were on

essential business: shopping for food or

basic necessities, attending medical ap-

pointments, or going to a job that cannot be

done from home. Cafés, restaurants, cine-

mas, nightclubs, museums and sports cen-

tres are all closed. Only food shops, phar-

macies, banks, newsagents, petrol stations

and—the irony—tobacco shops remain

open. There are 100,000 police officers and

gendarmes on the streets keeping an eye on

things; on March 18th they issued 4,

fines. Mr Macron has also mobilised the

army. It is not a lockdown on the scale of It-

aly’s (see Europe section); but it was a step

change in the country’s response.

A couple of hours before Mr Macron

spoke, Boris Johnson, the British prime

minister, took a newly tough line, too,

though from a more lax starting point. No

self-printed papers, or for that matter, en-

forced closures—but a directive to stay

away from both the office and the pub, and

a clear steer that further restrictions could

be coming in pretty short order. On the

same day Angela Merkel, the German chan-

cellor, issued a series of “guidelines” that

aimed to level up the various limits on

physical interaction that had been im-

posed by the country’s different states.

Spain had moved more quickly. At a seven-

hour cabinet meeting on March 14th, its co-

alition government approved a decree put-

ting the whole country into a 15-day state of

emergency. 

It seemed that over the weekend—the

Ides of March, as fate would have it—Eu-

rope had woken up to the sheer scale of the

crisis which it faced: so, to some extent, did

President Donald Trump’s administration

(see United States). In part, this was anoth-

er example of a cognitive phenomenon

that sars-cov-2, the virus which causes co-

vid-19, has been provoking around the

world: exponential whiplash. Knowing in

principle that something may take only a

few days to double in size does little to pre-

pare you for the experience of being

continually behind the ever-steepening

curve such doubling creates.

On the day of Mr Macron’s first speech,

The lockdown and the long haul

BEIJING, BERLIN, MADRID, PARIS AND SEOUL

European countries are being closed down in response to the covid-19 pandemic.

That cannot last for ever

Briefing

19 Theeconomicemergency

The pandemic

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