I posted this thread on Twitter this morning:
It's hard to believe that three years ago few people had heard of Covid, and fewer still thought it would disrupt life as we knew it for the following eighteen months, and millions would die, many in the UK. Now we are in denial again, which is just as dangerous. A thead….
If people in the UK were to believe our government Covid has been, and gone. Three years ago those few who knew of the threat it posed prayed for a vaccine. Now, work on vaccine development has ended. No one under 50 can even buy one, although they can for flu.
The argument is that Covid has gone away. It's said not to be an issue any more. A government that locked the country down now essentially denies Covid even exists any more. Both actions were incredible. The difference is one was justified. The other is recklessly irresponsible.
Covid has not gone away. We have just been through another wave of it. Many of the problems the NHS is facing are down to Covid. Millions of people have it some days in the UK. Our excess deaths are highly likely down to it. And the government is in denial.
It is as if, having broken every one of their supposed libertarian beliefs to lock the country down the Tories are saying now that we must live in a public health free for all where if youngish people die (the greatest proportionate increase in excess deaths is in 25 -44 year olds) well, so be it.
Ayn Rand must rule. The market must have its way. The power of collective action must be denied, even when we know that clean air is vital for the long-term management of Covid. And simple precautionary measures, such as masks on trains or in schools, must not happen.
It is our job now, apparently, to bear the risk for the government's libertarian folly, and to not complain about it.
But why shouldn't we? Children in the UK are denied vaccines when almost no others are. And people are actually barred from vaccines that they might need and benefit from. Whilst there is collective government denial. Statistics are no longer collected. Long-Covid care is closed.
This is the world of politics that the Tories have created. It is dystopian. It is mad. It is reckless. It is irresponsible. It denies the truth. It exists to confirm what Thatcher said: there is no such thing as society. And now they mean it.
And whatever they, and apologists for right-wing thinking in other political parties say, the reality is that Covid is still here. It is still a threat. It is still killing, and making millions more very sick. It is changing lives. And we cannot go forward unless we accept that.
But far from accepting we still have a massive ongoing public and personal health concern to face the government demands we must behave ‘as normal' when life is not normal because real people are suffering as a result of their failure.
Government by diktat to hide lies that blatantly contradict the lived reality of our existence is the legacy of Covid. I wonder when we will recover the capacity to challenge the collective lie that will result in some (maybe many) of us dying unnecessarily early? Soon, I hope.
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I can confirm the likely COVID-19 disaster facing us if the government keeps it head in the sand in a recently published peer reviewed paper- https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1108886/full
and blog – https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/pandemic-far-from-over/
And it is not just about health; it could be the final hammer blow in an already failing economy.
My local area is just coming out of a very high covid peak. My 92 yr old father was hospitalised a few weeks ago after a kidney infection and a fall – he wasn’t found for a couple of days and was very delirious with dehydration. There was a several hour wait for an ambulance on a midweek night. Five days after admission he tested positive for covid and was put into a side room. He returned to the same bay when the rest of the occupants tested positive. The majority of staff are not wearing masks. Those who do don’t seem to have access to clear masks that might make communication a little easier for hearing challenged elderly people. Poor Dad is still bedbound due to broken bones in his feet and damaged vertebrae from his fall. Will be visiting with my daughter in law tonight. Aside from lack of masks, his treatment has been good, from very dedicated people.
Visit impossible. The whole ward has been closed to visitors due to covid. After reaching its lowest ever figs for infection in the district (as of today’s count), i think it likely there will be yet another high surge such as we have just come down from.
Whaaat… ?
Here in France many people are masking again, and the Covid app is sending regular reminders. Vaccines are available to everyone on demand – book online via an app, we can even choose which type. I am not sure what the state of play is re live tracking and policy, but from my (limited, subjective) viewpoint the system appears to have absorbed Covid management into ‘business as usual’ – which is ensuring that the population remains healthy and able to function economically as a society.
In the microcosm, the French are terribly polite in public always; masking up like Darth Vader has elicited one genuine, and respectful, question from my local shop. Lockdowns – although draconian the first time – were managed with nuance and plenty of warning, notably contingent upon stats ‘next review on X date, should infections exceed Y cases locking down will be done in Z manner’ rather than ad hoc in knee-jerk responses to their popularity.
The relationship between the individual and the state is deeply rooted and highly contingent on lived experience. Asking around I found a chorus of older French people violently opposed to lockdown and, to a lesser extent, vaccines, in echo of Vichy and the visceral fear of local enforcement of State power by the Gendarmerie ‘be warned, we were raised on this’. No amount data is going to change that.
A small slice of the population. But the far right recognises lived experience, whereas technocrats talk in the abstract and look only forward. This needs to change
Thanks
I recently spent some time in hospital with pneumonia. The hospital was Ninewells, in Dundee, Scotland. Everyone wears a mask while moving about – staff and patients/visitors alike. In-patients are excused, but they are not going anywhere and frequently have oxygen/nebulisers anyway. There are mask dispensers in the entrance, where direction of travel has been segregated so on the way in you are presented with no excuse but to mask up. The ward I was in had one wing with several patients who also had covid, though they were admitted for other illnesses. Nurses donned extra PPE, including visors, to go and work in there. There were also some side rooms for isolation. Covid and other respiratory infections are treated seriously in all medical establishments here (including our local Vet) and after being released I was advised by a Duty Nurse not to go to a social event I had scheduled. “There’s a lot of them about” (infections) she said.
People have stopped using masks on public transport though and you don’t see many worn in shops or in public.
Having just returned from a day’s training in London, I’d say mask wearing was in the minority. It could very well be that we are sleep walking into disaster.
We are
Did you watch Panorama last night, about NHS staff with long covid. It’s horrific how they are being treated. I think we need to have it mentioned more in the MSM.
I notice that the covid enquiry was only open for 3 weeks for the general public to share our experiences.
There is a group which used to be called Zero Covid but is now called Covid Action which tries to refute the government’s claims, but again gets little coverage.
https://covidaction.uk/
It needs to be advertised a lot more.
I have spoken at their meetings