How to tackle the pandemic

• Author: Dumbrava, Costica
• Pages: 4-6

EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service

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On 13 May 2020, the Commission released a package of guidelines and recommendations with the

aim to: safely restore unrestricted free movement and reopen internal borders; safely restore

transport and connectivity; safely resume tourism services; and support and rebuild consumer

confidence in travel and transport services. In its communication on a phased and coordinated

approach for restoring freedom of movement and lifting internal border controls, the Commission

recommended that 'restrictions on travel should first be lifted in areas with a comparable

epidemiological situation', while keeping in place targeted measures, such as testing, contact

tracing, isolation and quarantine measures, to decrease the risk of virus transmission.

The European Parliament, in its resolution of 17 April 2020 on EU coordinated action to combat the

Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences, has urged Member States 'to adopt only necessary,

coordinated and proportionate measures when restricting travel or introducing and prolonging

internal border controls'. Parliament also called on Member States 'to significantly increase support

for research, development and innovation programmes aimed at understanding the disease,

speeding up diagnosis and testing, and developing a vaccine'. In its resolution of 19 June 2020

regarding the situation in the Schengen area following the Covid-19 outbreak, Parliament called for

a return to a fully functional Schengen area 'as a key prerequisite for the EU's economic recovery

after the COVID-19 pandemic'.

2. How to tackle the pandemic

The long-term solution to the Covid-19 pandemic would be a combination of vaccines that provide

protection against future infection and treatments that treat people who are already infected.10 In

the absence of this, the choice is between trying to eradicate the virus or reduce its

spread. Eradication (without a vaccine) is likely to require harsh and disproportionate measures that

may not be deemed acceptable in free and democratic societies. Trying to reduce or manage the

spread using a number of measures (isolation, testing and contact tracing) may allow healthcare

systems to cope with the situation.11

There is also the option of allowing the virus to spread through the population, up the point where

it can no longer find new hosts, causing it to die out – the so-called herd immunity strategy.12 If

pursued globally, however, it is estimated that such a non-interventionist approach would have led

to around 60 % of the world's population being infected within a year. Moreover, the herd immunity

approach would have created great challenges for healthcare systems. The approach also raises

complex ethical issues13 because the risk associated with widespread contagion is not equally

shared across the population, with the elderly and the sick likely to face the risk of infection

disproportionally. Lastly, it is also argued 14 that reaching herd immunity does not necessarily mean

that the disease is eradicated, it simply means that there will be fewer cases in places where

sufficient immunity has been established.

While waiting for effective treatments and vaccines, most countries have focused on managing the

pandemic through a combination of measures that include isolation of cases, social distancing,

testing, contact tracing and disease monitoring. In the European Union, a slightly different approach

10 WHO, COVID-19 strategy update - 14 April 2020

11 OECD, Testing for COVID-19: A way to lift confinement restrictions, 4 May 2020.

12 A. Regalado, What is herd immunity and can it stop the coronavirus?

MIT Technology Review

, 17 March 2020.

13 A. Basu, The ‘herd immunity’ route to fighting coronavirus is unethical and potentially dangerous,

The Conversation

,

17 March 2020/

14 S. L. van Elsland and R. O'Hare Coronavirus pandemic could have caused 40 million deaths if left unchecked, Imperial

College London, News, 26 March 2020.