Office virtues and youth vaccines

OFFICE working, incoherent governance and vaccine uptake were the coronavirus issues discussed by columnists in the newspapers.

Daily Express

Patrick O’flynn said working from home conjured up two very different pictures.

“For those of us lucky enough to have a garden, it sometimes meant sitting by a patio table tapping away on a laptop computer with a glass of something chilled beside us,” he said. “For many younger, less established and less well-connected workers the experience of WFH has been far less satisfactory. Those sharing rented houses have often had to negotiate with housemates over access to broadband. Others have seen cramped bedrooms – or even beds – become offices and have developed strains and backache.”

He said the Chancellor was championing a call back to the office.

“One suspects that employers who go all-in for WFH may find there is a long-term sting in the tail. They will be less able to judge who is really deserving of promotion. New innovations will flow more slowly. Before the pandemic struck, the office was a much-maligned environment. Mr Sunak is right to remind us all of its many virtues too.”

The Guardian

Rafael Behr said Covid policy is a mess because the Prime Minister struggles with the concept of protocol.

“There are few neater illustrations of his incoherent governance than a traffic-light system for managing overseas travel that expanded from the traditional three colours to a shaded spectrum, unknown in any highway code, that included green, green watchlist, amber, amber-plus and red,” he said.

“The current challenge is choosing the right rules. But the origin of uncertainty and incoherence, as with corruption, is a prime minister who is himself governed by the principle that rules do not really matter.”

The Independent

Sean O’grady said one of the few heartening aspects of the continuing Covid crisis has been the way that so many young people are coming forward to take the vaccines. “The Covid vaccines did have an accelerated development programme for obvious reasons, and they are innovative, but their effects were studied and they’ve been administered at unprecedented scale,” he said. “The short and longterm consequences of catching the coronavirus, by contrast, are known only too well and are rather more certain.

“Other countries vaccinate the over12s with parental consent, and so could Britain. It would protect schools and mean less disruption to education from local outbreaks. It seems we are moving in that direction. I still think we unlocked too early, but just for once, I’m optimistic that herd immunity and all the protection it brings, will soon be with us.”