It is wrong to place all of the burden on us to fight this new surge

DON’T mess this up. It’s on you – all of you. The reset demanded as infection rates surge centres on personal responsibility.

That message was relayed first by Paul Reid of the HSE, pictured below, but it has been echoed by senior politicians and health officials since then, before the Taoiseach revealed the desperate strategy when warning the Irish people that to ‘avoid any new restrictions coming in, to avoid going back, will demand vigilance on behalf of the people generally – all of us’.

Ireland stays open as long as you conduct yourselves.

The onus on us all to behave responsibly is obvious, but that predates the pandemic.

The social contract that governs our freedoms depends on citizens exercising their judgement responsibly.

But it also requires the input of the State, too, through scrupulous governance and fair treatment of all.

That is why placing the onus for a successful negotiation of this latest jarring turn in the pandemic experience squarely on the public just won’t do.

The State cannot abdicate its duties, and these include addressing the hundreds of thousands of people who are still unvaccinated.

They have emerged as irresistible scapegoats while case numbers have climbed, but treating more than 300,000 people as one homogenous glob, all drawing on the same motivation in their decision-making, is lazy.

Many are undoubtedly holding off on vaccination out of sincerely held concerns, but having a significant number of the population unprotected has consequences for everyone else.

Countering misinformation and providing reassurance is now a public-health priority.

There will be no quick or easy conversion of doubters, but a renewed public information campaign, for example, seems a good place to start.

The holdouts are understandable targets of frustration, but demonising them is no answer.

If those resisting vaccination – fewer than 10% of the population – need encouragement, the sacrifices made by everyone else have to be acknowledged, too.

Anybody unfortunate enough to have to visit a testing centre in the past fortnight could also see a large number of parents bringing schoolchildren along to be checked.

Despite research data consistently showing low levels of infection among children, and low levels of virus transmission, too, hundreds are taken for testing every day.

With the usual winter respiratory infections that sweep through every classroom and crèche in the country sharing a number of symptoms with Covid-19, parents are not taking any chances and submitting their children to tests.

This is honouring the social contract.

Now, customers in restaurants and pubs are being asked to do their bit by refusing to patronise a premises if the vaccine certs and IDs of those customers are not thoroughly vetted.

WORKERS are requested to stay away from offices, if possible. Those showing any symptoms of Covid are told to stay at home.

This behaviour is advised out of an abundance of caution, but it is also an issue of respect.

A sense of responsibility not merely to ourselves and our families, but to wider society, informed how people responded to earlier surges, and three lockdowns would not have endured without that spirit.

But it is not just the people who are required to uphold the social contract.

The authorities must as well, which is why the role of the public should not be allowed to become the only issue.

Premises that are not following agreed protocols should be punished. Those not vaccinated for reasons other than anti-vaxxer paranoia must be encouraged to do so. And the grim determination of the great majority of us to tough out another surge should not be underestimated.

Promising the end of lockdowns is not enough – and nor is expecting just the public to be the ones to reset.