The Covid revolts: Europe’s new wave of unrest

Given the ability of Covid-19 to make fools out of everyone, it is not entirely fair to single out an opinion piece penned by Christina Pagel and Martin McKee, members of the self-appointed ‘Independent Sage’ committee on 7 October. But it sums up an attitude which was common just seven weeks ago. ‘England, not for the first time, is the odd one out in Europe,’ they wrote. England had recklessly abandoned Covid restrictions in July, relying on vaccines alone to keep the country open. In contrast, our European neighbours were sensibly employing a ‘relatively light set of extra measures’, such as vaccine passports, to keep infections much lower than England’s. ‘They are demonstrating that there is a way to be open while keeping cases low… It works. And we should be doing it.’

That does not look like such a clever analysis now. Mainland Europe is once again the epicentre of the pandemic. Austria is back in lockdown and many countries face proposals for compulsory vaccination. In Austria, the number of new infections has doubled every fortnight since early October. Daily deaths are higher than they were during the first wave of Covid in the spring of last year. In the Netherlands, where police ended up firing at anti-lockdown protestors in Rotterdam, the autumn spike in infections is just as sharp as in Austria. Germany’s numbers are rapidly catching up. Sweden is offering hospital places to Romanians whose own healthcare system cannot cope with the surge.

What is remarkable about this wave is how quickly it has erupted into a culture war over vaccination. On 8 November, Austria’s new chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, announced a vaccine passport scheme of the kind already in operation in France and several other countries. Four days later he crossed a line which no other European leader had then dared cross: he announced a lockdown exclusively for the unvaccinated, to take effect from Monday 16 November.