14.08.2020

Parallel with the spread of SARS-CoV-2, national governments are trying to limit the pandemic’s consequences. Measures are taken under pressure. Probable devastating scenarios such as raising death tolls, health care system collapse, and a financial crisis cast a shadow over political decision-making. As an immediate reaction to COVID-19 threats, governments around the world introduced travel restrictions and mandatory quarantine for people traveling from the so-called risk countries. This analysis puts forward a historical perspective on how governments take decisions in the early moments of pandemics.

Author: Georgi Georgiev

A historical analysis of current urgent sanitary measures demonstrates that the authority of old practices for disease control remained intact today. Without denying the urgent need for efficient measures against the COVID-19 outbreak, one may not ignore the wider political and social implications of large scale decisions like travel restrictions, reintroducing border control in the Schengen area, and mandatory quarantine based on travel history. Studying the political effect of such measures in a historical perspective, the main political issue is to evaluate the extent to which certain sanitary measures reflect a state’s will and potential to implement urgent decisions. Specific historical example show that during crises governments tend to reintroduce already tested measures which, in the long run, are not the solution of the problem, but only the first step in searching or waiting for the most efficient way to limit a pandemic’s impact..

Departments: Făgăraș Research Club; Society, Crisis, and Resilience Program; Policy Analysis and Outreach Department

Region: Global

Themes: COVID-19, History, Public Policy