EU reacted with exaggeration and lack of coordination to Omicron and Portugal was not completed | Coronavirus
Do they make sense as restrictions imposed by governments after the Omicron variant was identified, which chooses several southern African countries without flights to many destinations in the world, for example? “It seems clear to me the unjustified exaggeration regarding the consequences of the new variant and the reaction of many European governments. They should have waited two or three days to hear the experts and assess the seriousness of the variant’s severity before moving forward with restrictions at the borders”, he told PÚBLICO, by the e-mail, Vasco Gonçalves, specialist in the assessment and management of environmental risks at ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa.
“The lesson for the future should only be one: act in advance, with precaution, based on the best information available at all times, seeking not to compromise public health and at the same time avoid limiting economic and social activities. For that, precautionary measures will have to be taken, of which the use of masks and carrying out tests are examples”, concluded Vasco Gonçalves.
José Manuel Mendes, coordinator of the Osiris Risk Observatory at the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra, says that the Portuguese government had what he classed as an “over-reaction”, an exaggerated reaction, when decreeing the state of calamity. “No one else has decreed a state of calamity in Europe”, says the researcher from Coimbra. But it reveals the problem facing the European Union, which is a lack of coordination of health policies. “As the EU does not have a single health policy, it has suffered a lot from this, it is what I call ‘health nationalism’. Before, it was called public health sovereignty, but now I think it is really a question of nationalism”, he considers.
The problem does not only affect Portugal, obviously. It can reach the point of having several health policies within the same country, says José Manuel Mendes. He gives the example of Germany, a country where he spent some time recently, and is experiencing a strong wave of covid-19. “There are 16 federated states, and each one has its own policy. In Brandenburg, where I was, there are no Christmas fairs. But if you take the train, in 20 minutes you are in Berlin and there are Christmas fairs. And people use it strategically”, essays.
“If the EU took a common decision to close limits to certain countries, or to activate the state of calamity in an integrated manner among member states, then it would make sense and how people perceived it”, he says. Portugal, by requiring tests from those who cross the border – in addition to the European digital certificate, which should exempt travelers from further proof of their health status –, will be thinking about the travels of emigrants, and even the immigrants who live here, José Manuel Mendes travels. But that was worth “a scolding from the European Commission to our Government”, he emphasizes. “We have emigrants who come from Venezuela, South Africa, Germany, France, Switzerland, Mozambique. And we have an influx of migrants from other European countries. But this could be said, to understand why the Government was taking the measures”, he considers.
“What remains is a feeling that the EU does not exist, that it is all ad hoc. It is dangerous that a Government can do this without sanctions. We cannot be dependent on the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention for the definition of measures, on the European Medicines Agency for the accreditation of vaccines, and then in the concrete policy it is everyone for himself”, male José Manuel Mendes.