Emil N. Iftekhar and Viola Priesemann are researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Martin McKee is professor of public health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and research director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Elena Petelos is vice-president for health technology assessment at the European Public Health Association and lecturer in evidence-based medicine at the University of Crete.
As the Delta variant spreads rapidly across Europe, policymakers fighting the coronavirus are once again faced with what looks like a difficult choice: to put in place potentially painful restrictions to rein in the virus, or leave the economy open and hope that vaccines and warm weather will keep the pandemic under control.