Playing the Blame Game: COVID-19

From closing schools to statewide lockdowns, Europe is beginning to take drastic measures to slow down the spread of COVID-19. By watching Italy, the international community has seen how an outbreak, overnight, can spiral into a full-fledged crisis when government officials do not prepare and react too slowly. The abrupt cancellation of our study abroad program clearly shows that COVID-19 has caused unprecedented measures to be taken, which affects not only tourism and health but also has paralyzed states’ economies.

There have been a lot of complaints about the European Union not giving enough funding or not making enough information available to people. According to pandemic specialist Sir Richard J. Evans, that’s fairly standard across epidemics in history. It would have been very unlikely that the European Commission would have been able to reach that far into member states’ domestic policies to order lockdowns. Member States have long resisted any EU role in public health, meaning that it is more difficult to take broad steps to slow the spread of the disease.

The main problem with the COVID-19 crisis is that it is revealing the lack of preparedness in European health systems. According to the NYTimes, experts say that the moment when aggressive testing should have been done passed more than a month ago. The first recorded case of COVID-19 in Europe was reported on January 21, 2020, in France, giving European governments just over two months to realize the danger of the virus and come up with a comprehensive plan for testing and quarantining. I think it is safe to say that the outbreak exceeded many government officials’ expectations and when the realization came to build a comprehensive plan, thousands were already infected.

If member states could have worked together from the beginning at a supranational level through the European Union, the region may have been able to implement strategies to reduce the spread and get proper testing kits ready. However, in countries such as France and Germany, there are limited number of test kits, meaning citizens are not being tested unless they are prescribed one by a doctor or show severe symptoms according to public health professor David McCoy. The lack of preparedness and insufficient testing capacity of European countries has left thousands of citizens self-quarantining in their homes, not knowing if they have COVID-19 or not.

I think now the European community is at a crucial crossroads in the fight to contain COVID-19. Italy has approached its neighbors and is seeking assistance in the crisis that is threatening to overwhelm its health care resources. During my time in the European Parliament, I learned that legislation and policy tend to move slowly because it has to take into account all member states. In order to close the external borders of the Schengen Zone, all of the leaders from the EU countries had to be in agreement, so when it comes to monetary and health issues, it is less likely that all European states will agree upon a single policy.

Throughout our IDS course, we have discussed the deconstruction of the European community. With the COVID-19 crisis still looming over the continent, it is crucial that the countries join forces and work together against COVID-19. Tony Barber, Financial Times columnist explains, “Among the eurozone’s 19 members, Italy stands out as the one that never fully recovered from the sovereign debt and bank crises that swept across the currency union after 2000.”

Italy is relying on its European neighbors to help it through this most recent crisis. If these states cannot join forces, I am afraid the virus may provide the next chapter in this deconstruction, as member states and the international partners lose of faith in the abilities of the European community.

-Marley Whittle