Unfortunately, the EU is once again becoming one of the global foci of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to last week’s data, Bulgaria (113 deaths per 1 million inhabitants), Croatia (96 deaths per 1 million inhabitants) and Hungary (89 deaths per 1 million inhabitants) have the top three worst places in the EU-27. .
Latvia (85 deaths per 1 million inhabitants), Romania (65 deaths per 1 million inhabitants), Slovakia (60 deaths per 1 million inhabitants) complete the list of the worst news in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. , Lithuania (58 deaths per 1 million inhabitants) etc.
In contrast, Sweden, which was severely criticized for avoiding a general lockdown at the start of the pandemic, had just 3.1 deaths per 1 million inhabitants last week.
The confusion in the EU
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic finds the EU capital, Brussels, but also the capitals of its member countries confused and unable to chart a new course in dealing with the crisis.
While the GDP of the Eurozone needs at least two years to return to pre-pandemic levels, everyone in the Eurozone says they are satisfied that they managed to leave the economic crisis caused by dealing with the pandemic behind them. However, the fact that the pandemic still exists characterizes as unfounded the calculations of the crisis so far. On the other hand, the political problem posed by the outbreak of the pandemic is expressed differently in each EU member country.
- France
There are uprisings in Guadeloupe and Martinique against restrictions on the unvaccinated, and behind these uprisings may be social and economic protests, such as the “yellow vest” movement 2 years ago.
- Germany
The pressure for the new government to take office quickly came from the new outbreak of the pandemic, becoming the first test of its effectiveness. The problem is that the three parties that make up the new governing coalition have different views on how to deal with the pandemic, while the same applies to the governments of the 16 German states, where each has its own point of view on how to deal with it.
- Netherlands
While it has excellent results (as does Sweden) in terms of the number of deaths per million inhabitants, it has a large increase in the number of cases. The government has announced new restrictive measures, sparking riots in major urban centers with the support of the far right. Differences between the parties in dealing with the pandemic make the decision to form a new government difficult.
- Belgium
Mass demonstrations against the new restrictive measures.
EU public opinion
Public opinion is constantly pressuring the EU and the governments of its member states to avoid implementing restrictive measures. The opposition press does the damage, because every time a new measure of confrontation is announced, they present it as a lockdown. The anti-vaccination movements mostly find expression in the opposition press.
In practice, however, lockdowns in the full sense were applied only in countries such as China and Australia, which lasted for months and effectively limited the world to his home. For all these reasons, the EU and its decision-making centers do not know how to deal with the pandemic, when the WHO warns that the vaccine is the only strong but not the only solution.
Member-countries governments are reluctant to take action at budgetary and political cost, respectively, and much of public opinion refuses to be disciplined. The appearance of the Botswana mutation indicates that the end of the pandemic will last at least until the end of 2022, indicating that while vaccination rates in Africa and other parts of the world remain at very low levels of 5 to 6%, developed countries will not be fortified. The virus will mutate where it can move freely and return more vigorously even in countries with high vaccination rates.
“Defeat” of the EU and the US
This whole situation shows a strategic defeat of the USA and the EU respectively, which together with the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, are identical in the perception of the world public with the concept of the West.
There are currently around 2,000 deaths a day in the EU and 1,500 in the US respectively. This means that every 30 hours the number of deaths in the EU and the US is equal to the total number of deaths recorded in China during the entire pandemic period.
Comparison is inevitable and over time it is becoming more and more important worldwide. China has tackled the pandemic effectively by taking drastic measures and reducing the total number of deaths to 5,000 with a population of 1.4 billion people.
Over the past week, there have been just 3.4 deaths per million people in China as a whole in the pandemic, when the corresponding numbers for the US are 20 and 2351, respectively.
Just as the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine triggered a humanitarian crisis and hastened the fall of the EU, so the pandemic will bring Western governments up and down as ineffective in dealing with it.
The APAC area as a suggested example of tackling the pandemic
The figures are from last week per 1 million inhabitants:
- Singapore
Seven deaths per 1 million inhabitants and 119 deaths respectively throughout the pandemic.
- South Korea
3.7 deaths in the last week and 66 deaths at all during the pandemic.
- Japan
In the last week 0.1 deaths and 145 deaths in the whole pandemic.
- Australia
1.8 deaths last week and 76 deaths in the whole pandemic.
- New Zealand
0.6 deaths last week and 8.5 deaths in the whole pandemic.
