Permanent state of emergency

PM Andrej Babiš could probably let the state of emergency expire on Dec. 23 and then invoke a new one a week later without risking much. Christmas will be calm anyway. Other than this possibility, though, there are signs that the state of emergency will be a permanent fixture of Czech life for many months or even years to come. Interior Min. Jan Hamáček told Czech TV yesterday that we will have to keep messing around with the PES anti-epidemic system until the population is vaccinated. Yet the head of the vaccine rollout, Zdeněk Blahuta, said that it will take nine months to inoculate 7m people. And if it is found that vaccines don't provide long-term protection, or if too few people get one, the covid elite will no doubt start a vast media campaign to convince the vulnerable few of the necessity of imposing intermittent lockdowns. Maybe the covid vaccine is indeed the "only final solution," as Babiš told Parliament last week, but it certainly isn't a quick one.