What price is too high in the war against Covid?

Wars reshape states. The powers and size of governments grow. Economic activity is controlled or subsidised. Liberties are curtailed. Identity cards, rationing, censorship: the rights of the individual and freedom of speech are subjugated to a national effort to win the war. Lifestyles change, and so do societies.

The struggle against Covid, if not exactly a war, is beginning to have a similar impact on our economy and society. Not since 1939 has government action transformed societies to the extent we have seen in the last six months. Swathes of the economy have been shuttered, while states have propped up businesses and paid millions of workers’ salaries. A third of the workforce – 45 million people – in Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain have been on employment subsidy programmes. Meanwhile, our way of life has changed fast. Digital technology was transforming our lives before Covid struck. But now millions have seen that working from home, paying without cash and shopping online is eminently doable, if not always desirable.