Flattening the curve or flattening the global poor? How Covid lockdowns obliterate human rights and crush the most vulnerable
Stavroula Pabst and Max Blumenthal · December 3, 2021 In October 2021, it seemed as though the lockdowns that still paralyzed societies from Australia to New Zealand and Singapore were coming to an end, as these countries threw in the “Zero-COVID” towel following a year and a half of rolling restrictions and closures. But with COVID-19 cases rising in Europe, several countries are implementing lockdowns all over again, often with clearly punitive motivations. This November, Austria’s government announced that police would enforce a lockdown exclusively against unvaccinated citizens . Following days of massive protests, the policy was extended to everyone, with steep fines and even prison sentences to be imposed on those who refuse to comply, and a compulsory vaccination requirement tacked on for good measure. Next door in Germany, where a new lockdown was announced this December for unvaccinated people , barring them from almost all public places except for pharmacies and su