Surrendering to Covid

WELL, having started off with a good old rebellious rant, I might as well carry on doing the same. I’m afraid Covid-19 is bringing out more than viral symptoms. There has been a serious outbreak of UK government control freakiness. Their behavioural rules and regulations become more frantic and confused by the hour, to the exclusion (and this is what worries me) of anything else. Now the UK suffers “three tier, traffic light” lockdowns (even the official jargon is misleading). In a major crisis, I’d expect any government to be unpopular, but when you are in a hole, “switch off the JCB”!

One voice of reason rang out last week, ironically from an ex-MP. Step forward Michael Portillo. He asked an obvious question. When will the government balance the negative effects of lockdown on the economy, on social cohesion and the healthcare of patients suffering life threatening illnesses other than the virus, against the unprecedented level of government spending? In other words, is lockdown more threatening to the UK’s long-term wellbeing than the virus is? Which causes more deaths? The virus or the lockdown? It is a question any responsible government should be asking. People are frightened, not just of the virus, but of the effects on mental wellbeing of yet more months of being locked away and the increasing fear of job loss.

Vallance and Whitty (the two leading government “experts”) predicted 50,000 new UK Covid cases, per day, by October 13. That day came and went, with the number of new cases proving to be under a third of their prediction. Deaths are declining, not rising. Average reported age of the victims? 82! Isn’t a sense of proportion long overdue? The UK government isn’t managing the pandemic, it’s surrendering to it.