Jab refuseniks can’t hold UK to ransom
LeT’S start with the good news. in a victory for the Daily Mail, the Government is – for once – following real science.
Ministers are cutting the quarantine period for people who catch Covid from ten days to seven, conditional on them testing negative two days in a row.
The overprohibitive rules were crippling businesses and public services by leaving them shortstaffed or forced to close – fuelling a lockdown by stealth.
Relaxing this regime is proportionate, productive and – most importantly – helps prevent Britain grinding to a halt.
And the welcome signs of positivity don’t end there. To the relief of millions preparing to celebrate with family and friends (not to mention pubs and restaurants whose survival rests on festive takings) Boris Johnson declared Christmas Day would not be wrecked by tougher restrictions.
if only the rest of the news was as optimistic. Spooked by Omicron, and Sage’s preposterous (and invariably inaccurate) predictions, Mr Johnson won’t rule out curbing our liberties after December 25.
This would not only break a solemn promise. Such a retrograde step would inflict huge economic and social misery.
And would it even be necessary? The PM himself yesterday admitted ‘uncertainty’ over Omicron data – a confession that infections are flat...hospitalisations are flat ... and deaths are flat.
Yet frightened by chief medical officer Chris Whitty’s bloodcurdling warnings, people have voluntarily stayed at home – with catastrophic effects for hospitality.
As a consequence, Rishi Sunak has had to whip out the nation’s credit card to pay for a gargantuan pubs bailout.
To begin paying off Britain’s towering £2.3trillion national debt, the economy must be allowed to boom. instead, we are throwing it to the wall by introducing restrictions to protect the creaking NHS.
Most damning of all is the great unspoken truth: That the vast majority of critical Covid cases in hospital are unvaccinated.
it is screamingly obvious the region with surging hospital admissions is London – where vast numbers wilfully refuse to roll up their sleeves. On this page, an intensive care consultant writes in graphic detail about his anger at their selfishness.
Surely the answer is not to imperil the economy, jobs and daily life by limiting the liberties of responsible, inoculated citizens to focus on measures to prevent refuseniks from endangering themselves?
What a stark contrast it is between Mr Johnson and US President Joe Biden, who last night set out his blueprint for tackling a huge coronavirus surge.
Telling his nation – so healthconscious and safetyfirst – there would be no new lockdown, he warned the unjabbed that they faced a stark winter.
Life can no longer be held to ransom to safeguard those stubbornly shunning vaccination. it is a lesson the Prime Minister must learn quickly.