Perspectives from Europe: How France and Germany handled the COVID-19 pandemic
By Jadenne Radoc Cabahug
With a high emphasis on tourism filtering hundreds of thousands of tourists, Europe as a whole was hit brutally by COVID-19.
Countries like France, England, and Italy had their time as some of the highest virus cases and death counts. Most European nations imposed a series of lockdowns and other restrictions in an attempt to lower these numbers, and while some had success, others are still struggling to lower it like France.
«Je pense que la France a été mal préparée. Et le gouvernement français a mal anticipé la crise sanitaire,» says Eloïse Pouleau, a 17 year old from St. Malo, Bretagne.
Pouleau said that the French government was badly prepared and poorly anticipated the sanitary crisis.
«Elle a réagi pire que dans d'autres pays européens, car elle a pris énormément de retard alors qu'il y a d'autres pays européens qui ont pris des mesures sanitaires bien avant la France,» Pouleau said.
She said that in comparison to other European countries, France acted extremely late.
«Ça a créé des conséquences. Comme par exemple nous, en France, on a été en pénurie de masques et de gel hydro alcoolique pour le main.»
She says that the French government’s late response to the pandemic caused a shortage of masks and hand sanitizers. This appears to be a trend amongst most countries in the world, late reactions to the pandemic cause for a series of problems to follow.
Countries like France, England, and Italy had their time as some of the highest virus cases and death counts. Most European nations imposed a series of lockdowns and other restrictions in an attempt to lower these numbers, and while some had success, others are still struggling to lower it like France.
«Je pense que la France a été mal préparée. Et le gouvernement français a mal anticipé la crise sanitaire,» says Eloïse Pouleau, a 17 year old from St. Malo, Bretagne.
Pouleau said that the French government was badly prepared and poorly anticipated the sanitary crisis.
«Elle a réagi pire que dans d'autres pays européens, car elle a pris énormément de retard alors qu'il y a d'autres pays européens qui ont pris des mesures sanitaires bien avant la France,» Pouleau said.
She said that in comparison to other European countries, France acted extremely late.
«Ça a créé des conséquences. Comme par exemple nous, en France, on a été en pénurie de masques et de gel hydro alcoolique pour le main.»
She says that the French government’s late response to the pandemic caused a shortage of masks and hand sanitizers. This appears to be a trend amongst most countries in the world, late reactions to the pandemic cause for a series of problems to follow.
In a separate article on this website, you can see how one country’s early responses and actions to COVID-19 cases allowed it to look like a pre-COVID world.
Just across the border in Germany, speed is also something that is lacking in a separate COVID-19 response.
“The general public is a little bit frustrated with that, because they, yeah, they felt like it was all going too slow,” Valentin Dreher said.
Dreher is a student at the Technical University of Dresden in Dresden, Germany. He praised the German government’s pandemic response through light lockdowns and other restrictions, but raised concerns about the vaccine rollout.
“In the case of Germany, they relied heavily on the European Union to get the vaccines,” Dreher said.
Other countries invested money into vaccination companies, allowing them to get supply first. Since other countries have taken to vaccine nationalism, Dreher said Germany had to play catch up in the game.
Germany has opened up its vaccination program to the whole population as of June. Both Germany and France have about 20 percent of their population fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data.
Germany and France have both imposed strict lockdowns when a surge of cases emerged throughout the pandemic.
Pouleau said France had three strict lockdowns, the last one shutting down schools in the Bretagne region.
«Le succès de la France, c'est pour moi, c'est comme la France, elle a réussi à laisser toutes ces écoles ouvertes alors que dans d'autres pays, les écoles étaient fermées et nous en France, depuis le début de l'année scolaire. J'ai toujours été à l'école, sauf maintenant vu qu'on est confiné. Et du coup, je pense que ça, c'est un beau succès.» Pouleau said.
Pouleau expressed that she felt one of France’s successes throughout the pandemic was its ability to keep schools open. Most schools around the rest of the world had to be shut down, but until the third lockdown, she did not have to do online school.
In Germany, Dreher said that the German morale is low due to the continuous lockdowns.
“People are less and less satisfied with another lockdown and another lockdown,” Dreher said. “It's also hard for me, especially as a young person, to always conform to the rules and to stop myself from being young in a way.”
Dreher’s current location of Dresden actually saw protests from a small minority that do not believe COVID-19 is real. He shared that at the beginning of COVID-19, it was a genuine part of the population that was concerned for businesses and the economy with the imposed lockdowns.
“It really turned into a kind of radical movement that is trying to completely undermine the COVID policy that is currently in place,” Dreher said.
In France, for the most part, Pouleau said that people follow the rules of mask usage, hand sanitizing, and social distancing under the punishment of being fined if caught by law enforcement.
«La plupart des gens y suivent ça parce que il y a des, il y a des conséquences. Si, par exemple, je sors dehors sans masque, je peux avoir une amende à payer. Donc ça fait peur aux gens.» Pouleau said.
On the other hand, Pouleau said there are some people that simply do not care.
«Par exemple, il y a des gens qui font la fête sans masque, tout ça à Paris,» Pouleau said.
She said, for example, there are people in Paris who party without masks. Like other countries, restrictions vary by region. Pouleau said the Île-de-France region, and especially the city of Paris, saw longer lockdowns than Bretagne because of their case numbers.
«En France, il y a des personnes malades du COVID très graves qui ont été transportées en train dans d'autres régions, là où il n'y avait plus de places.» Pouleau said.
Pouleau shared that if a person had a severe COVID-19 case, they would need to be transported by train to other regions, as some places do not have room.
«Il n'y avait pas assez de lits, justement pour les gens qui étaient en réanimation dû par rapport aux COVID. Et donc, ça a été en France, on a dû pas construire des hôpitaux, mais pas de vrais hôpitaux.» Pouleau said.
There were no beds for people who required resuscitation from COVID, she said. In France, they had to build hospitals that were not “true” hospitals.
Pouleau is describing “pop up hospitals” made up of tents and medical supplies in an attempt to help COVID-19 patients.
In Germany, Dreher said that their public health care system had a better time handling it than other countries like France.
He was studying at a community college in the Seattle area when the pandemic first came about, but travelled back to Germany since he knew he could rely on its health care system.
“I remember this one situation when I talked to my Hong Kongese friend who ordered masks, and he said, okay, we should have those just in case. I said, no, we'll never need to wear masks, I'm so sure this is gonna go away in a few weeks. Turns out it didn't,” Dreher said.
One thing Dreher mentioned was that healthcare workers in Germany are not paid as much for the amount of work they do.
“There were discussions whether to give them a raise for the time being for COVID, but the government decided not to give them a raise,” Dreher said. “This is why a lot of them are probably pretty frustrated, because they have to do all these extra hours and don't really get any time off anymore.”
Pouleau said that the French government has critically looked at COVID-19 by imposing many sanitary restrictions because of the enormous impact it had on its people.
In Germany, Dreher said there were new regulations in place as well.
“There's a new regulation for companies, they now have to offer COVID rapid tests to their employees,” Dreher said. “The German government has been really reluctant to impose any rules on companies, which has been criticized by many.”
In the wake of the devastating impact COVID-19 had on every aspect of life, Pouleau and Dreher had positive things to look forward to.
Dreher said the pandemic helped Germany advance digitally.
“Germany was always very reluctant to do anything digitized. I think it's a great achievement that everybody now knows how Zoom works, and that they don't need to fly out for every meeting basically,” Dreher said.
«Moi, je l'imagine plutôt bien en ce qui concerne l'économie, même le culturel et même le politique.»
While the GDP of France has gone down, Pouleau says that once the virus is truly done, she believes once life goes back to normal, restaurants, theaters, and other things open up, that the economy will rise.
«Je pense que la France saura se relever par rapport à ça parce que une fois que le virus sera parti, une fois qu'on sera tranquille, je pense que les gens y reprendront leurs habitudes de vie parce que les restaurants sont fermés, les cinémas sont fermés en France et je pense que les gens, il faut que tout arriver, ils n'hésitent pas, ils iront.»
The European Union approved Americans for travel to Europe in the summer of 2021, and Pouleau and Dreher have opposing feelings on this matter.
«Je pense que c'est bien parce que même si il y a beaucoup de COVID, je pense qu'on ne doit pas se priver de voyager. Ça fait déjà un an qu'on se prive de plein de choses par rapport aux COVID,» Pouleau said.
Pouleau believes that people should not deprive themselves of travelling because the pandemic deprived people of so much already.
Dreher said that while travelling and opening up was great, to still be mindful that some European countries still need to have a majority of their population vaccinated.
“I think people traveling to Europe should be aware that even if they are vaccinated, they still have to do all the stuff like [wearing] face masks,” Dreher said. “Basically, they have many rights compared to people that are not vaccinated. So it might not be that fun vacation everybody's hoping for this year, but as long as they keep social distance and have their face masks, I don't really see an issue that much.”
Dreher worried about the long term effects from COVID-19 on the public healthcare system, among other things.
“I always have this picture in my mind of a circle of like 1.5 meters around me, Dreher said. “This is just a feeling, I think I've internalized so much after this point that I really want to get rid of that again.
He looks forward to going to concerts, clubs, and bars, since the drinking age is lower in Germany.
“I would need to be young for a while,” Dreher said.
«Je pense que c'est bien parce que même si il y a beaucoup de COVID, je pense qu'on ne doit pas se priver de voyager. Ça fait déjà un an qu'on se prive de plein de choses par rapport aux COVID,» Pouleau said.
Pouleau believes that people should not deprive themselves of travelling because the pandemic deprived people of so much already.
Dreher said that while travelling and opening up was great, to still be mindful that some European countries still need to have a majority of their population vaccinated.
“I think people traveling to Europe should be aware that even if they are vaccinated, they still have to do all the stuff like [wearing] face masks,” Dreher said. “Basically, they have many rights compared to people that are not vaccinated. So it might not be that fun vacation everybody's hoping for this year, but as long as they keep social distance and have their face masks, I don't really see an issue that much.”
Dreher worried about the long term effects from COVID-19 on the public healthcare system, among other things.
“I always have this picture in my mind of a circle of like 1.5 meters around me, Dreher said. “This is just a feeling, I think I've internalized so much after this point that I really want to get rid of that again.
He looks forward to going to concerts, clubs, and bars, since the drinking age is lower in Germany.
“I would need to be young for a while,” Dreher said.
The interview with Eloïse Pouleau was conducted in French and translated by Jadenne Radoc Cabahug.