‘One final push?’ Yeah, right – this madness is here for good!
We are told that this is the ‘final push’. What folly.
The precedent has been set. This is here for good.
Cartoon by Crid.
15 months on from ‘three weeks to save the NHS’, the ‘final’ stage of the Government’s unlocking roadmap, previously scheduled for June 21st – or ‘Freedom Day’ – has been pushed back by up to four weeks (for now).
Having previously proclaimed to be focusing on ‘data not dates’, Prime Minister ‘Boris’ Johnson is now tying himself to neither. The data is ignored and the dates are as unpredictable as the British weather.
Speaking of both data and weather, if the Government is to combine utilitarianism with pragmatism – which it believes it’s accomplishing through a partial re-opening – then the nation should have already been handed back its full set of pre-lockdown liberties. It is now the norm for daily ‘Covid death’ figures to be in the single figures, even after the ‘within 28 days of a positive test’ metric inflating the figures. This is largely why NHS England has finally instructed hospitals to differentiate between patients admitted to hospital because the virus has caused them to become seriously ill as opposed to patients who contract the virus but are seeking treatment for other ailments.
Regarding the weather, it appears that Covid is a seasonal virus, spreading more easily in winter and weakened by warmer temperatures. Although transmission is also dependant on other factors, such as population density and age demographics, Covid – in this nation at least – spikes during periods of cold weather before scaling off when spring and summer arrive. If a delay of only a month does go ahead, then by the time it is completed, autumn will only be about 60 days away. Then, the fear mongering and hysteria around the fabled ‘September surge’ will begin in earnest.
Now I will address the elephant in the room: the successful vaccine rollout campaign.
The envy of many of our Continental neighbours, the Government first set out to administer the vaccine to its chosen priority groups, which are those most vulnerable to the virus, accounting for roughly 88 per cent of Covid deaths. This target was promptly achieved in February, with the rollout campaign extending down the population age pyramid.
41 million adults have received a first dose and 30 million have had the second. This means that almost everyone who is vulnerable to Covid has been inoculated – this has certainly played a role in bringing the daily death count to as low as it is, and it is unlikely that this winter will be as deadly as the last.
Yet the progression of the vaccine rollout is one justification given for lockdown to be extended – that another month is required just to be on the safe side, especially now the Indian (Delta) variant is wreaking havoc (it isn’t).
The groups currently being vaccinated – mostly the young and healthy – are not at risk from Covid. If vaccinating everyone is a requirement for ‘Freedom Day’ to be met, then the curtains will never be pulled apart.
Likewise, if the mantra ‘one life is too many’ is applied (an emotional version of the ‘zero-Covid’ initiative) then humanity may as well try its luck in colonising the surface of the Sun.
But these common arguments against continuing restrictions falls on deaf ears. Despite the overwhelmingly positive data, the Government has thrown a spanner in the works to everyone’s June 21st plans.
At the time of the Euro football tournament, why can’t stadiums open to full capacity, or pubs ditch social distancing measures? Because a combination of paranoia mixed in with utopianism and self-interest is holding the minds of those in political power and the wider public hostage.
‘Covid Anxiety Syndrome’, an epidemic in its own right, and made possible by the constant flow of naked propaganda campaigns terrifying its victims into hysteria, has ensured that lockdown restrictions are accepted by enough of the electorate.
Through powering the dominant culture and engineering itself as the status-quo opinion, lockdown sceptics are routinely stigmatised, accused of being selfish, stupid, and dangerous – wanting people to die if it means they can get a haircut. Pro-lockdown dogma has been a hegemonic force for some time now.
Those pulling the levers of societal institutions – be they in Whitehall, the media, or the army of scientific advisers – purposefully created this situation and continue to exploit it.
The Coronavirus Act 2020 gifted the Government ‘emergency’ powers, allowing it to bypass Parliamentary checks and balances to effectively rule by decree. History demonstrates that political bodies don’t like to hand such powers back. If Covid disappears tonight, then entities which have used the pandemic as justification for receiving increased powers, funding, and attention will find themselves kicked off the gravy train. Health Secretary Matt Hancock would cease to appear on our screens.
In turn, the natural expansion of unchecked powers fuels the world of micromanagement. For some, power is the end goal, but it can also be the means, particularly if it involves reaching for a utopian objective, which the open secret ambition of ‘zero-Covid’ certainly is.
Total control is needed to enact draconian policy to squeeze out the results of the nebulous goals set by those sitting on the political throne. Paranoia, and the need to be perceived as doing something, has also played a vital role in this power-grab. Yet if ‘zero-Covid’ is attained, then the next emergency will soon follow, whether that be climate change or the seasonal flu.
First Western governments discovered that they could introduce similar lockdown policies to China by following Italy’s example, with ‘three weeks to save the NHS’ composing the original time-window. Then the first lockdown was extended. Then we were told that Christmas had to be saved. Then the vaccine came, and we were promised that there was light at the end of the tunnel. Now, the nation is informed that this is the ‘final push’. What folly. If anyone still has any ounce of trust in our political overlords, may I remind them that the furlough scheme – the perfect predictor for any future lockdown – has been extended until September.
The precedent has now been set. This is here for good.
