10 May 2021
COVID-19 vaccines: How Structural Factors Can Vitiate Patient Autonomy and Dictate Vaccine Choice
Financial self-interest, fiscal considerations, geopolitics, sovereignty, governance, protectionism, and nationalism are currently dictating COVID-19 vaccine procurement at the macro level. Such structural factors indirectly vitiate autonomy at the grassroots level and run counter to the ideal that individuals should have access to the highest attainable standard of health. Continue reading >>
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08 May 2021
Muddling through Mutation Times or the Return of Federalism in Austria
While the Austrian government´s reactions during the first wave of Covid-19 in spring 2020 are considered to have been successful, disillusionment followed in the fall 2020 with a second wave, for which the government did not seem to have prepared properly. The third period (January to April 2021), on which I will focus in this blog entry, shows a mixed performance of the government. Continue reading >>
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07 May 2021
A Government (Un)Governed?
On 16 December 2020, despite rising rates of infection and the widely predicted ‘second wave’ already impacting neighbouring European countries, Prime Minister Boris Johnson mocked the opposition for wanting to ‘cancel Christmas’ by reintroducing nationwide lockdown restrictions. Three days later, a nationwide lockdown in England was introduced (inadvertently mimicking the March 2020 commitment that London had ‘zero prospect’ of lockdown, four days before it was enforced). The lockdown – closing schools, universities and a majority of businesses which were deemed non-essential and prohibiting gatherings of more than two people outdoors from separate households – continued until 12 April 2021 when restrictions began to be lessened through a phased ‘roadmap out of lockdown’. Such political hyperbole by the executive and lax response, followed by sudden U-turn policy making (‘essay crisis’ governance) and severely restrictive measures, have characterised much of the response to the pandemic in the UK. Continue reading >>
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06 May 2021
The Use of Emergency Powers in Response to COVID-19 in The Gambia
More than a year after the pandemic was first reported in The Gambia, the state is returning to ordinary processes. Many COVID-related restrictions have been lifted, allowing businesses, markets, schools, restaurants, bars, gyms, cinemas, and nightclubs to resume normal operations, and borders to be open. However, from 8 March 2021, police permits will no longer be issued for music festivals, political events, and other forms of social gatherings. This comes against the backdrop of the country’s limited resources, weak healthcare systems, and ineffective mitigating measures including social distancing, self-isolation, and avoiding public gatherings to prevent further spread of the virus. Continue reading >>
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05 May 2021
Possibly Constitutional, But Not This Way
Earlier this year, the Parliament of the Autonomous Community of Galicia, Spain, amended the regional Health Act of Galicia to introduce, inter alia, the possibility to impose administrative fines on people who ‘unjustifiably refuse’ to comply with an order to be vaccinated against a given disease. This is the first-ever explicit legislative provision in Spain setting out sanctions for those opposing vaccination. On 21 April, the Spanish Constitutional Tribunal declared an unconstitutionality appeal against the reform of the HAG admissible. Continue reading >>
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05 May 2021
COVID-19 and Emergency Powers in Western European Democracies: Trends and Issues
Domestic emergency powers resorted to in the Covid-19 crisis are very different from each other. Is it possible to identify common trends in the comparative scenario? Limiting the scope of the analysis to democratic countries of the Western European area, at least four different tendencies can be identified. Continue reading >>04 May 2021
The State Advances, the People Retreat
It is widely agreed that Wuhan, China is the origin of this pandemic. China has also been criticized for its initial mishandling of the outbreak, including local officials’ cover-up, the incompetence of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control (CDC), and the repression of whistle-blowers. In light of what had happened in other countries, however, China’s subsequent responses were nothing short of miraculous. From its lockdown in Wuhan, to the nationwide joint prevention and control system, from border sealing to mass testing and contact tracing, China’s measures were more intense than almost anywhere else in the world. Continue reading >>
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01 May 2021
Democracy and the Global Pandemic
What’s the future of the free world? What does the ‘free world’ even mean? Recent reports from leading democracy assessment bodies depict a shrinking democratic atlas that is more fragmented than it has been for decades after a steep decline in every world region. Continue reading >>
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29 April 2021
COVID-19 in Kenya a Year Later: A Case of Déjà Vu
What began as a health crisis quickly morphed into an economic, human rights and governance upheaval. In March 2021, we came full circle as we saw a return to excessive law enforcement in the country on account of the third wave of the virus, which has led to a surge in the number of people testing positive and thrown the country back into a state of disarray as poorly resourced health facilities grapple with the influx of cases. Continue reading >>28 April 2021
Migrant Workers’ Safety Concerns Should be a Pandemic Priority
In the second year of the pandemic, migrant workers continue to work under precarious conditions, exacerbated by the additional risks associated with Covid-19. Social security assistance in Germany, including health care provisions, requires a minimum of 70 working days before employers are required to contribute. During last year’s agricultural season, the German government raised this minimum to 115 days. This made healthcare the responsibility of one’s country of citizenship, not of one’s employer. This year, in April 2021, the German farming industry has successfully pressured the government to re-extend this provision to 102 days. Continue reading >>
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