"With the vaccines, the restrictions will come to an end," all the experts told us last summer, and with them the legions of political leaders who, without an iota of specialist knowledge, have put on their white coats and made statements. More recently, Dr Josep Maria Argimon, now Catalan health minister, made a prediction on December 5th in Lleida that the Europa Press agency summed up as follows: "Argimon says that the omicron variant, first detected in South Africa, will not have a major impact in Europe." Since that Sunday, in the middle of the Puríssima holiday break, only two weeks have gone by, in which we have been repeatedly been told that no measures would have to be taken. Until this Monday, when the message was turned inside out like a sock and now, with great urgency, the Catalan High Court (TSJC) is even being asked to approve a curfew between 1am and 6am, which, as it happens, the expert committee advising the government had not requested.
I understand that the public are concerned and feel abandoned by the administration, which at the same time has primary care centres overwhelmed while antigen tests have mysteriously disappeared from pharmacies, just at a time when people need them most, and phone calls for medical attention due to illness or possible infection from a contact have flooded the communications systems so heavily that it has ended up being impossible for them to attend to you or call you later. The public is confused and fearful. Because it is no minor matter that some of the things we were told about the evolution of coronavirus have not ended up being true and, unfortunately, the vaccines have not brought an end to the restrictions.
And this does not mean that the best thing we can do is do anything other than get vaccinated, as all the experts point out, nor does it negate the necessity of booster shots, which can now be requested by anyone over 50. But beware of broken promises and states of euphoria that end up evaporating over the months. Not just us, because, for example, this Tuesday it was Germany that announced new restrictions, although - and this is not a minor detail - they start on December 28th, so as not to affect Christmas. The only thing we are continually learning with Covid-19 is that there is a huge amount that we don't know and that, unfortunately, the scenarios change every day.
It is clear that they have waited until the last limit to make the latest announcements and that, for it to turn out like this, someone could perhaps have planned it so that impact on the Christmas holidays would be less and so that, above all, it would not have triggered the alarm that has been set off among the Catalan public. All you had to do in the last few hours was take a walk around Sants station or hop on one of the many commuter trains, for example, to see that between Monday and Tuesday there was a significant reduction in the number of passengers. Or how the number of clients seen in many restaurants has dropped. Or, to observe that there is scarcely a family in which the current debate is anything other than how they should reorganize the festive meals on Christmas Day, Sant Esteve on the 26th, and New Year. Saying this on the night of December 20th sounds like improvisation.
And that this Wednesday, the day of the Christmas lottery, the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, should convene a meeting by internet with the autonomous community presidents to talk about the pandemic and the measures sounds like a joke. A working session that was announced a week ago and it is hard to understand that, since they are holding it by Zoom it has taken so long and has been so difficult to fit in to the participants' timetables. Anyhow, please: they all need to do better.