A emergency shutdown complete and harsh like the first wave of coronavirus infections, but limited in time and aimed at a very specific purpose: save next christmas of a new wave of infections. The idea is of two French Nobel laureates, Esther Duflo and Anhijit Banerjee, who in an editorial published in the newspaper Le Monde, launched the proposal to the French government in light of what is happening in the country in recent weeks with a new spike in infections. The proposal foresees a block from December 1 to 20, To ensure that family Christmas celebrations can take place with a reduced risk of coronavirus transmission:

According to the two Nobel laureates, a confinement thus conceived with “clear, uniform and transparent” terms would drastically reduce the dangers of contagion for the most vulnerable people, especially the elderly, thus saving Christmas for families. Not only that, for Duflo and Banerjee, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2019 for their work on poverty reduction, a lockdown thus conceived would also have limited impact on schools and would be less damaging from an economic point of view. .

For the two economists, according to the current figures of the coronavirus infection in France, without a lockdown a forced and even more severe lockout could occur, which could lead to a lockdown. “total cancellation of Christmas” or to a block after the holidays because with the end of the year holidays a worse wave of infections is likely to be unleashed. “Family gatherings, with their long moments of conviviality at the table, are unfortunately conducive to contagion. In the United States, the long weekends of Memorial Day in late May and Independence Day on July 4 were followed by a spike in pollution, ”write Duflo and Banerjee.

That is why we must “act first”. The cost to the economy would be important, “but less than it would be to cancel Christmas or redefine everyone in much worse circumstances 15 days later” and “people could be encouraged to do their Christmas shopping in November,” explained the two economists. . We don’t want to redefine the country we want the French to spend the New Year holidays with their family. Anticipating a three-week confinement seems like a prediction to me. I do not project in two months, but I evaluate the situation day by day ”, however, the French Minister of Health replied.