Forgive me if I am not enthusiastic about our prospects of being out of lockdown any time soon. I find it hard to celebrate being granted permission to go the pub—something I have not required since I was living at home with my parents and even then, I often went without permission. I did brave the elements a couple of weeks back but when my wife announced that her glass of wine was getting colder than when it was served, we beat a hasty retreat before exposure set in. Now we are allowed into the pub, memories of track and trace, face masks, hand gel and one-way systems do not fill me with enthusiasm for returning until we are completely free of all restrictions. But I frankly wonder if that day will ever arrive.
I guess readers of Unity News Network could have seen it coming, by which I mean the news this week that the road to the end of lockdown has roadworks and traffic lights installed and delays may be inevitable. Boris Johnson’s ‘data, not dates’ speech was a blatant inexactitude at the time and that became even more apparent very quickly. My view is that lockdown and enforced antisocial distancing should never have been implemented. But, given that it was, the data have been pointing to low deaths, low infection rates and low hospitalisation for a long time. The speed of lifting restrictions could and should have been accelerated but it was not. It was clear that we were in a ‘dates, not data’ situation. The dates were obviously fixed minimum settings and now some dubious data have put the fear-mongers back in the ascendency. For anyone who thinks ‘what’s the problem with a few more months of restrictions?’ I would point to the millions of pounds being spent daily, the increasing levels of poverty and unemployment, the mental health crisis, the suicides, the domestic abuse, and the telescopically long queues for vital NHS treatment and rest my case.
The excuse for slowing things down is the so-called Indian variant of COVID-19 which is killing thousands in India (but at a lower rate than COVID-19 was killing people in the UK), has reached our shores (no surprises there) and is now killing next to nobody in Bolton, seven at the last count, and as far as I can ascertain the usual suspects: the older and the vulnerable. This virus is spreading among younger people; that is what viruses do, they find new victims and they spread better among people they do not kill; younger people. Moreover, the people hospitalised in Bolton are largely people who have been offered and refused a COVID-19 vaccine. There is just no justice where viruses are concerned.
I still think that too many people are just having too much fun as a result of the pandemic to want to stop. An obscure set of scientists and other academics, few of whom anyone had ever heard, are having their time in the limelight and, provided they are ‘on message’ with COVID-orthodoxy, their universities keeping pushing them into it. The two ‘big chiefs’ of medicine and science, respectively, have become household names with their regular TV appearances flanking our glorious leader. Then we have the constant flow of mendacious ministers who simply spout whatever they are told to spout for fear of losing their jobs. If not the Indian variant, it will be something else: an Inverness variant; insufficient vaccine uptake; a rise of cases in Timbuktu, they will find something. People’s patience has gone from thin to threadbare and only the well-off, the scared witless and the indolent are happy to carry on with restrictions.
Opinions from the Unity News Network (UNN) editorial team & various contributors. | UNN always clearly distinguishes between news and opinion pieces and as an open minded outlet we publish views from a variety of people and organisation that do not necessarily reflect the views of UNN or its writers. Articles published under UNN Opinions are always opinion pieces and if published on behalf of a contributor will contain that authors name at the start of the piece.
