UK’s relaxed COVID-19 policy worries vulnerable

Many United Kingdom residents with damaged immune systems have attacked the government’s policy of effectively ignoring the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The “living with COVID” strategy is now fully in place, with almost all restrictions and most monitoring having been swept aside.

But, with the UK recording another 234 COVID-19 deaths on Monday and with the Office for National Statistics reporting 1 in 25 people had COVID-19 during the week ending April 23, many immunosuppressed people who do not respond too well to vaccines have been filled with fear at the prospect of returning to crowded buses, trains and offices.

Helen Simmonds, who takes immunosuppressant medication because of multiple sclerosis and has had five COVID-19 inoculations, told the Financial Times: “I feel like I’m trapped in March 2020 and everyone has moved on.”

She said she does not expect others to “go around in hazmat suits” just to protect her, but insisted “there’s more this government can do”.

“There’s just no political gain in caring about the immunocompromised,” she said.

Simmonds is one of around 500,000 people in the UK with conditions that leave their immune systems severely damaged.

During the early days of the pandemic, they were ordered to strictly self-isolate. But many can no longer do so because of the government’s encouragement of a return to the workplace.

Alex Richter, an immunology professor at the University of Birmingham, told the Financial Times the UK’s “living with COVID” strategy is akin to “a game of Russian roulette” for vulnerable people.

“The government has decided that there’s one strategy and one strategy alone: vaccination. Anyone whose vaccines don’t work has been hung out to dry,” she said.

Now that the government has ended free and easy access to antibody testing, people who are immunosuppressed can no longer check to see if they still have the antibodies that would protect them.

‘Feeling forgotten’

And with the strategy no longer requiring mass testing, mask-wearing, or self-isolation for people who test positive with no symptoms, immunosuppressed people are feeling forgotten.

And experts say a new variant of COVID-19 — Omicron XE — could leave people even more exposed, because it is infectious for longer.

Denis Kinane, leading immunologist and founding scientist at Cignpost Diagnostics, told The Mirror newspaper: “Since testing levels have decreased due to the government’s lifting of regulations … we are testing much less now and not sequencing the virus to any great extent … This is naturally leading us to question whether current regulations are able to combat the spread of a variant which appears to be transmissible for longer periods of time.”

He said the “living with COVID” strategy will “leave many vulnerable groups extremely vulnerable to COVID-19”.