Cases of COVID-19 are rising and despite warnings from Berlin to remain alert, a growing number of Germans are pushing back against hygiene and social distancing rules even as their neighbors — the French — embrace those measures to try and avoid another lockdown. 

But France also announced a plan to cut COVID-19 quarantines to only one week. 

Host Sumi Somaskanda explores how the two European neighbors are dealing with the health crisis with her guests, MP Andrew Ullmann of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), who is on the Bundestag health committee; Eleanor Beardsley, NPR international correspondent in Paris, and Andreas Kluth, columnist at Bloomberg Opinion.

This show was produced by Monika Müller-Kroll and Sumi Somaskanda. Voiceovers by Caleb Larson.