Analysis – Saturday, 27 March 2021

Complacency Is Not A Solution
We have a new virus and should treat it as such

The recent German numbers are testimony to a textbook example of bad Covid management. After a 3-month lockdown, the government decided to give the public some relief and allowed a phased reopening. Scientists warned against it because the vaccination rate was still too low, incidence still too high and a new virus, variant Britain, had replaced the old one, a virus we are only starting to understand. As a result, incidence and ICU occupancy shot up and, regrettably, the death rate went up, too. The latter because not all of the demographic that was prone to succumb to the old virus had been vaccinated.

It is not a consolation that other countries have made similar mistakes, Sweden for example. Or that France has done even more wrong. Or that the United States, spurred by sinking numbers, were re-opening businesses that should have remained closed (restaurants for instance). 

What will save us has not changed: vaccination, testing and quarantining plus the understanding that the pandemic will last for another year if not two.