Niyi Olarewaju

With Europe now becoming the epicentre of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19), European nations’ response to the pandemic will soon come under scrutiny on how they largely failed to learn vital lessons from China’s initial lacklustre response to Covid-19, and the Chinese authority’s subsequent aggressive and efficient management of the epidemy which ensued across mainland China. As the second wave of infection struck Europe, Italy emerged as the incubation hotspot in February, most European nations paid lip-service to the evolving epicentre in Italy, largely ignoring the incredible mobility of this novel virus. These nations largely failed to put in place any concrete measure to alert their citizens on the very high transmissibility of Covid-19. It is understandable that European governments want to prevent panic and disruption to economic activities, which can incur overwhelming consequences, but downplaying a global health emergency which has for weeks tilted towards a pand...