Coronavirus Disruption of your Internship: Did Europe React Too Slowly? - Grant Sommers

Europe reacted fairly slowly to the coronavirus epidemic. In hindsight, after seeing how easily and fast the virus spread in China and the economic/political/social impacts it had in the country, once the first cases arrived in Europe by early February (in France and Germany mainly), European countries could have implemented stricter measures to slow the arrival of the virus to Europe. Now, Italy alone (excluding other hotspots like France, Germany, and Spain), the United States, and China all have roughly the same number of 80,000 cases. There was a chance that the spread of the disease into Europe could have been avoided, or slowed, if tighter measures were taken earlier, such as significantly slowing the flow of people into Europe, especially from China, which by February 21st had 75,000 confirmed cases, compared to 16 in Europe. Knowing that a host may not present symptoms either at all or until 2-14 days after exposure and once Europe saw China’s cases growing exponentially, the inherent risk was too large to continue to allow travelers from that region into Europe.

On the other hand, perhaps due to the nature of this virus, its fast ability to spread, and its inconsistency in symptoms and timelines, the whole world was bound to experience the impact from the very first transmission. All Europe needed was one Chinese traveler from late December to introduce the virus or one European returnee from China to introduce the virus. Thus, maybe Europe did not react “slowly” to the virus per se, but simply unfortunately could not prevent its introduction due not only to the virus’s unique incubation period, but also the globalized and interconnected world. For this reason, the cliché recommendations we have heard over and over from our parents, doctors, teachers, nurses, etc. about washing our hands, avoiding touching our eyes, avoiding public areas and such really is the most effective and easiest way to slow the spread of this virus and any one for that matter.

Regarding my internship at the European Parliament, events during the last two weeks of my work there clearly showed the direction the institution was headed and was a precursor to what would eventually become the end of the study away program in Brussels. By early March, Parliament President David Sassoli announced that the Parliament would be closed to everyone except people who worked there, and multiple interns in the Parliament were asked to begin work from home. I and my fellow interns were not among those people, however soon after, my MEP canceled all of his meetings and travel plans. Eventually, Parliament canceled its Strasbourg week sessions and by then, I had been informed that I would have to evacuate Belgium and head home.

I suppose I was mentally preparing for that outcome for weeks, as I was rather apathetic, so to speak, to the situation when it happened. I was upset, sad, and thrown for a loop for sure, however I had come to accept the reality of the situation rather quickly. It is what it is, que sera sera, est quod est.