Confused public have been led to believe the pandemic is over

I FEEL compelled to respond to the Government’s (or, more likely, Boris Johnson’s) efforts to divert the public’s attention away from the diabolical situation we are all in with Covid-19 on the rise yet again, as has been predicted.

A general attitude held by the public and allowed to take shape, I believe deliberately encouraged by the Government, that the pandemic was now over. Britain has the worst record for infections, which are set to get worse as the same old mistakes are still being made.

“The Government has created the conditions for mass infections and then has failed to establish an effective booster policy to mitigate the consequences.” With the increase in Covid infections, deaths and hospital admissions on an alarming scale, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation is urging immediate action and the implementation of so-called Plan B immediately. Let’s wait and see!

The booster programme is a shambolic mess, indeed the whole situation is a complete mess. From the start of this pandemic, the Government has been vague, muddled and unclear; full of hot-air, meaningless rhetoric and dithering inaction. “The public are confused, politicians are confused and the NHS is confused.”

We should and could have learned a lesson from Israel, which initiated a successful vaccine rollout. Our Government failed dismally to learn the lesson.

Further, when this pandemic started, Britain was caught napping, absolutely unprepared for this catastrophe. It is bewilderingly amazing that given the lessons of history – the Great Plague (1665), the Indian Cholera epidemic (which carried off a third of Hull’s population in August 1849) and the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1919 – which are fine examples, and should have been seen as warnings for the future.

Contingency plans should always have been in place – regularly updated – to combat epidemics and implement clear, unequivocal, action to fight any epidemics/ pandemics that could arise in the future. There seems to have been none.

Meanwhile, as per usual, Boris Johnson, waffling on and applying his wordy, often meaningless, rhetoric, leaving most people baffled, has tried to divert the public’s attention away from our immediate state of health to focus rather on climate change.

Ending the use of fossil fuels and encouraging new and expensive forms of heating with a penchant for electric cars by 2035 has become the new focus. The “in-thing” for populism and central to Boris Johnson’s remit.

Meanwhile, the confused people of Britain will be convinced that pandemic is now over. Far from it.

As the current increase in Covid19 accelerates, we will all soon learn that the Government’s strategy has been to bluster, waffle and divert attention from the real issue – combatting and ending the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the general public are deceived into believing all is well and the focus is now on climate change.

This is an excellent example of how Governments hoodwink and control the public, and no one is better at it than the PM Boris Johnson. He and his Cabinet should resign.

The only problem is there seems to be no one out there who can replace him and sort this country out.

Peter Asquith-cowen, Anlaby.