One of the things the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic taught us is that there were no magic solutions that would make the rapid spread of infection simply go away and that, as they say, there are no rewards until you put in the hard yards. The second wave is already upon us and we should have learnt something from those terrible months that left the image of Spain gravely damaged: drastic measures were applied, some of them too late and with atrocious results, both from a health and economic point of view.
Though it is very difficult for people to admit it, our political class is sometimes too timid in its decision-making, afraid that any action it takes will have a boomerang effect a few days later that will destroy the public support that might be won. The debate we have imported from France on curfews contains a lot of this, including the semantic and historical question about what this measure really signified in the past, when it might be much simpler just to talk about banning nighttime mobility.
The Spanish health minister, Salvador Illa, met this Thursday with the country's interterritorial health council, which brings together representive of the autonomous communities, to address the issue, just as some regional governments such as those of the Valencian Country, Andalusia and Castilla y León have already said they want to apply the curfew in all or part of their respective territories. It has just been implemented by France throughout the country and also by Greece, and partially in Italy. All of them have decided on different time limits but the same goal: a ban on nighttime mobility, to break the viral transmission that can take place at those hours. I repeat: there is no perfect solution, but rather a series of measures, as balanced as possible for health and the economy.
From the start and in view of the varying mix of measures that are being applied in Europe, a curfew has seemed to me the least bad, and one that the Catalan government should have been pushing for days. Combining it, of course, with an immediate re-opening of bars and restaurants - partial, but broad enough to avoid the collapse of the sector. Some have proposed daytime re-opening, from 6am to 5pm, and this seems more than reasonable as a way of avoiding the destruction of thousands of businesses and jobs. It is illogical for this one sector to be taking on its back the full weight of a crisis that is much, much broader, as long as businesses respect the health measures imposed on them, as the majority have. Getting stuck in the trap of being unable to ease the measures because it would look like an admission of an earlier mistaken decision would be the worst of all responses right now.
In short, it is a matter of saving the largest possible volume of economic activity during the day with reinforced public health safety measures, and concentrating on a blanket restriction at night. I know that there are departments of the Catalan government that advocate this and others that oppose it, a situation that is usually the prelude to a decision-making blockage. It would be nice if we knew the justifications of each side in the argument as there is a lot at stake. It is also a mistake to compare the level of satisfaction people felt over the response in the previous wave with the feeling about the current resurgence, as a significant part of society has a different attitude. That’s the truth right, whether we like it or not. The sequel is never the same as the original story and the way people react is not the same either.