THE NEW YORK TIMES: Public health officials say “pandemic fatigue” presents a real challenge to countries trying to enforce new measures meant to slow the virus while avoiding national lockdowns.
LONDON — France has placed cities on “maximum alert” and ordered many to close all bars, gyms and sports centers on Saturday. Italy and Poland have made masks compulsory in public. The Czech Republic has declared a state of emergency, and German officials fear new outbreaks could soon grow beyond the control of their vaunted testing and tracing.
Across Europe and beyond, Covid-19 has come roaring back, and, as happened last spring, officials are invoking restrictions to try and suppress it. But this time is different.
Still reeling from the economic, emotional and physical toll of nationwide lockdowns that brought the Continent to a virtual standstill, government officials are finding that the public might not be so compliant the second time around.
In some places new restrictions are accepted, albeit grudgingly, because the alternative — new nationwide lockdowns — would only be worse. But there is widening skepticism that the public would even go along with such a drastic step. » | Marc Santora and Isabella Kwai | Friday, October 9, 2020
