Deja vu
Tags: UK, UK Politics, Covid 19, Support Bubbles, Coronavirus

Oh, am I done.

Here we are, in the middle of a second/third wave of this dreadful virus, one of the highest (the highest?) death rates per capita of any country in the entire world, and a ‘lockdown’ that isn’t worth the paper it isn’t even written on.

We have so many businesses that are not even slightly ‘essential’ at the moment open because the government has included them as ‘key workers’ (meaning they have no access to funds in order to close). This includes jobs that could be put on hold and staff furloughed (e.g. many in the manufacturing industry) and jobs which could opt either for that OR for staff working from home (e.g. in the case of some call centres). But no, those staff have to work, or they’ll be sacked, and if they have kids, they have to go to school.

We have nurseries/pre-school settings across the board wide open (as in, not ‘closed to all but children of key workers’, although that in and of itself is a bit of a joke at the moment, given how long the list of key workers is — schools are almost as full as they were before this ‘lockdown’, which means anyone whose kids are in a school or who works in a school is at risk — and yes, that includes doctors and nurses working in frontline NHS jobs, and, if they’re not wearing adequate PPE? Their patients).

We have three quarters — that’s 75% — of people in one major city (Liverpool) who were unable to access the ‘isolation payment’ of £500 that was touted as a brilliant idea to ensure people obeyed the rules. Seventy five percent. An overwhelming majority. These were people who did the right thing, and are now paying the price. And we wonder why in the UK the number of people who isolate when contacted by test and trace (and they’re in the minority — test and trace is an utter fiasco) don’t do so? Because they can’t afford to. Because if they do the right thing, they can’t pay the rent, they can’t feed themselves, they can’t feed their family.

And that’s even before we talk about how you can STILL only get a test in certain circumstances if you have very specific symptoms, despite the fact we have all seen so many reports of other symptoms now being linked to the virus, especially in children. Runny noses, headaches, dizziness, earache, I mean, according to Dominic Cummings this virus can even affect your eyesight. But unless you’re willing to lie (and be shamed for it, if anyone finds out) you can’t get a test unless you have one of the Big Four. Remember back in the day when we didn’t even have loss of taste/smell on the symptoms list despite the fact that the world and her partner were saying “this is a very common symptom”?

And then there’s contact tracing. An absolutely embarrassing state of affairs. But by all accounts this hasn’t improved and may even have got worse. The government handed the contract to this with someone with an absolute proven track record in one thing: failure.

And all these things are going on around us. All of these. Constantly. Combined with poor messaging on masks (we still have people who don’t seem to be aware it needs to go over your nose — compared to the messaging on handwashing early on in the pandemic this is ridiculous; there was so much on that that it became its own meme), the fact we are still in some places denying it is an airbourne virus and talking about ‘social distancing’ indoors being adequate, the fact we still — STILL — don’t require children (younger kids I could understand but I’m talking even teens here), in fact, in some cases, don’t ALLOW children — to wear masks in schools even though, as I’ve said earlier, they are pretty full, in fact, the fact that masks STILL aren’t compulsory in offices (and, yes, many offices again are … yep, open) — combined with all of this, it’s NO. EFFING. WONDER that our rates are as bad as they are.

But who do I see people blaming, all around me, left right and centre?

Their neighbours.

People not wearing masks outdoors (I actually think it’s probably a good idea to wear a mask outdoors if you’re going somewhere that can get busy, or if you’re doing any kind of exercise that causes heavy breathing, but certainly the risk of catching the virus outdoors remains considerably lower than indoors, especially with very short interactions).

People who, rather than exercising in their nearest park, decide to drive a few miles away where it’s less busy.

People exercising for more than an hour a day.

People going to the supermarket more than once in a week (who are proobably people with a large family, espcialy if they have no car, or people shopping for vulnerable neighbours or food banks, but that doesn’t stop the curtain-twitchers, oh no).

And the worst people of all, apparently, are NOT, in fact, the government, but these people:

People who have social interactions with others in their support bubble that look suspiciously like they might be having fun.

Those bastards. Having fun. Don’t you know there’s a pandemic on? Those are the people that are entirely to blame, the six people in a ‘bubble’ with a bottle of prosecco between them, not the government cramming 60 people into a small call centre or warehouse. They’re okay, because they’re making money and they aren’t having fun. So that’s fine. No one needs to crack down on that, of course not.

It’s Sharon and Sandra from number 78 and number 81 across the road, it’s THEM. Didn’t you see their instagram story where they hired a hot tub for Sandra’s back garden and Sandra, Sharon AND Sharon’s fella Steve AND Sandra’s two kids Sophie and Savannah and to make matters unbearably worse, hashtagged it #blessed and #livelaughlove? Five people — FIVE ENTIRE WHOLE PEOPLE meeting in an indoor setting, all of whom are lucky enough to be able to #StayatHome (in fact, that was another hashtag on the story), it’s THEM. It isn’t schools that are still full of kids because the government has (on the quiet) reclassified an awful lot of people as ‘key workers’. Not that. It isn’t call centres. It isn’t people being unable to afford to isolate.

Nope, it’s Sandra. Blame Sandra.

I saw this on twitter in the early hours of the morning and it just about summed it up for me, the attitude in this country.

[Alt text: a tweet by someone with the handle Gawge. It says, “a lot of people would be happy to see low paid workers continue being crammed into warehouses as long as people who go for a walk in the second-closest park to their house are tased to the ground by a squadron of police.]

And why have I called this Deja Vu? Because this is exactly how it was in March, too. The government has learnt nothing, but neither have we. We carry on blaming the Sandras of this world instead of the government.

And that’s why they’ll win. Again. And again. If I were Sandra I would watch out. But Johnson? Williamson? Hancock? Whitty/Vallance/Harries, the Rod Jane and Freddy of Public Health? They’re just fine. Carry on lads, at this rate, you’re on target for a landslide victory in 2024.