{"id":77397,"date":"2024-08-23T07:25:13","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T06:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=77397"},"modified":"2024-08-23T07:25:13","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T06:25:13","slug":"of-course-the-government-is-ignoring-covid-to-do-otherwise-would-require-that-it-admit-that-society-exists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2024\/08\/23\/of-course-the-government-is-ignoring-covid-to-do-otherwise-would-require-that-it-admit-that-society-exists\/","title":{"rendered":"Of course the government is ignoring Covid: to do otherwise would require that it admit that society exists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/article\/2024\/aug\/23\/fifth-patients-two-north-england-surgeries-long-covid-study-finds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Guardian has reported<\/a> this morning that:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"dcr-1hirwfs\">One in five patients registered to a pair of GP surgeries in the north of England have long Covid, according to a report that lays bare stark regional inequalities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>They add:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"dcr-1hirwfs\">The north-west of England had higher than average numbers of people reporting long Covid symptoms, with just over one in 20 people (5.5%), followed by the north-east and Yorkshire (5.1%).<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1hirwfs\">Southern regions of England had the lowest rates overall, such as 3.4% in the south-west and 3.6% in the south-east. The average rate of long Covid across England was 4.4%.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>So, on average, one in twenty-three people has long-Covid, which is quite debilitating in my eight-month experience with it. And yet the government:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>no longer talks about Covid<\/li>\n<li>has suppressed most Civid statistics<\/li>\n<li>tells hospitals to treat it as a low-risk issue when it is not<\/li>\n<li>is not providing a comprehensive vaccination programme, unlike other countries<\/li>\n<li>is bemused as to why we have a problem with chronic sickness in the UK, which is undermining labour force availability and productivity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Join up the dots, Wes Streeting. It isn't hard. And then treat Covid with the continued seriousness that it deserves.<\/p>\n<p>Only, I can't see that happening. Covid has become a virility test for politicians of the Single Transferable Party in all its forms, including those members of it currently in office at the Department of Health.<\/p>\n<p>Treating it is presumed to deliver tacit agreement that public health is an issue, and that society exists.<\/p>\n<p>Treating it is also presumed to restrict the freedom of the individual to threaten the health and well-being of others.<\/p>\n<p>Neither of these things will do for a libertarian. Admitting that there is a virus that is threatening our health and social and economic well-being cannot be done. We are all paying far too high a price for that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Guardian has reported this morning that: One in five patients registered to a pair of GP surgeries in the north of England have long<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2024\/08\/23\/of-course-the-government-is-ignoring-covid-to-do-otherwise-would-require-that-it-admit-that-society-exists\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,14,35,16,87,147,118,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-corruption","category-economics","category-ethics","category-health","category-inequality","category-labour","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77398,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77397\/revisions\/77398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}