Is there any evidence that half-measures like curfews work when the virus is as widespread as it now is in France? As far as I can see, the curfew is doing nothing to hold down the caseload--people are just gathering for boozy brunches, instead.
My strong intuition is that the only thing that will work--both to stop transmission and save the economy--is another total confinement, probably for three weeks. The half-measures will only prolong the agony; they'll save neither lives nor businesses.
I sense that the government is fucking around with half-measures because it can't bring itself to confront reality. Among the things it can't confront is that the French public just can't, for some reason, understand the point of these rules:
People can't understand, or don't want to understand, that the virus spreads when people congregate in groups. They treat the curfew as an irritation to be managed--by gathering in groups during the day, instead--
rather than an expression of the principle, "Sharply reduce and if possible eliminate the hours you spend in groups of other people." Why don't they don't understand this? I don't know.
It is, perhaps, an expression of a pathological relationship to the government--
It is, perhaps, an expression of a pathological relationship to the government--
which is viewed as a capricious parent, one that makes arbitrary and silly rules--rather than a servant of the people. The end result will be maximum death *and* maximum economic destruction.
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