The thinking behind PM’s slogan for phase two of the pandemic
THE effectiveness of the Government’s initial instructions for people to “stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives” is crystallised in the new slogan drawn up for the second phase of the response to Covid-19, which is focused on controlling the virus while gradually easing some restrictions.
By asking the UK to “stay alert, control the virus, save lives”, Downing Street drops the core messages to remain indoors and protect the health service – instructions that resulted in far greater numbers of people than expected staying at home.
The messaging forms part of the balancing act on which Boris Johnson will now embark, as he attempts to encourage workers to return to offices and factories where they can safely do so, to help gradually “unlock” the economy after a nationwide lockdown lasting for almost two months.
To succeed, the Government must persuade staff that it is safe to return to work, and so the instruction to “stay alert” will apply as much to employers.
In the case of workers, maintaining distances of two metres from others will be identified as the most important way they can fulfil this instruction. But it is also likely to involve advice on when to wear face coverings to help reduce the spread of infection, such as on public transport.
Employers will be asked to follow “safer working” guidelines which will set out the need for provisions such as the recommendation that workers avoid sitting face-to-face.
The central message of protecting the NHS has been dropped from the Government’s primary slogan after the health service and ministers managed to prevent hospitals being overwhelmed during last month’s peak of admissions, after thousands of additional intensive care beds were freed up as a result of the cancellation of nonurgent surgery and discharge of many non-Covid patients.
The target of “controlling” rather than eliminating the virus, highlights the Government’s focus on keeping the infection rate down, while at the same time attempting to re-open as much of the economy as possible without risking a second peak.
In March Mr Johnson was advised by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies that the “perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging” – criteria apparently fulfilled by the first slogan.
The new message uses slightly softer, paramedic-style yellow and green colouring, by contrast to the yellow and red of its predecessor, which appeared to warn of danger ahead.