The Blog of the European Association for Digital Transition
We had no choice: Starting in spring 2020, with the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, children all over the world continued their schooling via online classes. And it was, in this dramatic context, a solution; undoubtedly, much better than being away from schooling for months and months due to a lack of means and connectivity.
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Assessment of health services based on outcomes rather than on activities done in hospitals or primary care centres is a demand that remains pending. If we were to ask about this in different countries, we would find fairly uniform results: what matters are the results, not the activities.
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The pandemic that has been raging for more than a year is dramatic proof of the weaknesses in health systems, even in the most developed countries. In Spain, whose situation during the first wave was particularly dramatic, recognized experts had warned even before coronavirus that the National Health System was overwhelmed, especially in the area of primary care and public health.
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The serious discrepancies between the European Parliament and the Council, chaired this six-month period by Germany, confirm what was already felt: It will not be easy to implement the historic EU post-COVID reconstruction agreement, closed last July by the heads of government. This is bad news for everyone, but especially for the countries most in need of this shot of investment, such as Italy and Spain.
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Europe has sealed an historic agreement, reached after five days of negotiations. The 27 have launched a huge financial package to drive the post-COVID economic recovery and have set the budgetary roadmap until 2027 for modernisation of the continental economy. This is historic as it provides a quick response to bounce back after the blow taken from the pandemic, and historic for the huge amount of funds mobilised now and for coming years.
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The gradual lifting of restrictions is here. Europe is, little by little, ending the lockdown of its population, using different rhythms and methodologies. And for now, despite all the debate in recent weeks, there is no consensus on widespread implementation of applications to detect people who have been in contact with others who are newly infected.
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As the weeks pass and the coronavirus crisis evolves, debates about the day after have become increasingly important. The ‘day after’ poses some enormous difficulties: the virus will continue to be here, and the vaccine will still not be a reality. Many hopes have been placed on technology in order for the economy to not remain paralyzed – an economy that, in large part, is based on the movement of people – and to avoid, once again, the nightmare of an outbreak capable of saturating hospitals and ending the lives of tens of thousands of people. More specifically, hopes are placed on the effectiveness of applications that track the proximity of citizens. Like this, health services can contact all those who have been in contact with others who have become sick to apply selective isolation measures.
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The severity of the coronavirus pandemic not only reminds us of the real meaning of the internet: it is also putting discussions on the table that the EU did not consider having just a few weeks ago. The technological ability to track the footsteps of its citizens, facing an expanding disease that is countered with social isolation, is a huge temptation for EU governments. And, with tens of thousands of deaths throughout the EU, it would be incomprehensible to completely dispense of a tool capable of combating the virus.
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Nothing will be the same when this crisis is over. Just as the way we greet strangers will change, we will also put more value on health professionals, the corner pharmacist, our children’s teachers, the cashier at the supermarket. All of them, with different depth and levels of responsibility, have been there as our way of life has collapsed from a public health crisis unprecedented in recent history.
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