We cannot afford to lockdown until a vaccine comes
It is not the economy versus lives, it is lives versus lives.
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When the pandemic began, the world, largely unprepared, turned to the only solution that seemed popular: lockdown. Since then, we have gained new insights on all fronts and it is more apparent now than ever that lockdowns are simply the wrong tool to use.
The idea behind them is to limit the spread of the virus to prevent deaths while a vaccine is being worked on, but the chances of a workable vaccine have decreased and if one does emerge it will be well into next year or perhaps even later.
With a vaccine so far away and not guaranteed, how do lockdown advocates continue to justify their beliefs in this Orwellian tool against the virus? In education alone, the cancelling of exams and the all-online nature of learning has created an unequal class divide that will disadvantage students for decades to come. For students in higher-income households and public schools, teachers have delivered a programme of education online that has proved quite effective in making sure the workload is kept at a level that keeps the venture of learning going. However, in schools that lack the resources the picture is very different, with work being lacklustre at best and parents who cannot afford home tutors struggling to fill that gap.
This divide will become more apparent as the years go on and those in higher education will not fare much better, with the lack of in-person teaching devaluing their degrees as they enter a job market that is almost non-existent, again thanks to that 'virtuous' idea of lockdown that has plunged economies across the world into ruin.
The notion seems to be that lockdown is favouring public health over the economy and is, therefore, the moral route to take. This does, however, neglect the underlying reality that the economy and people’s livelihoods are inexorably linked.
It is not the economy versus lives, it is lives versus lives.
As businesses sink and jobs are lost, people are left in poverty. Suddenly, catching a disease most recover from did not seem that great of a risk to take compared to the hardship lockdown has brought to the poorest members of our society.
Nowhere is the farce of this baffling policy more apparent than in hospitals across the country where all those who suffer from anything that is not Covid-19 are largely neglected. An NHS that was meant to be overwhelmed has not been, yet those with cancer, heart disease and other illnesses are knocked down the list to the detriment of their health.
Suddenly, non-Covid deaths simply are not worth dealing with to lockdown advocates. They are willing to let people pass on until a vaccine gets here. To me that idea is simply repugnant. Mental health too has dived, with the statistics on suicide and depression during this period speaking for themselves.
Knowing that the tide is turning against them, with the World Health Organisation even questioning governments who are relying too much on this tactic, scientists and politcians who are obssessed with lockdown are changing the terminology to placate the public into accepting the unacceptable. ‘Circuit breaker’ lockdowns of two weeks or less were advocated, but pre-determining the length of a lockdown defeats its aims. When we are failing to even recover from the first lockdown, plunging the Country into a second (as we have now done) will leave scars on this country that will last for generations to come.
Simply put, we have to learn to live with this virus. Most jump with outrage at such a statement, believing it means I wish for the virus to tear through the population, as our incompetent Health Secretary Matt Hancock put it. That is simply not the case. We should be cautious in our everyday lives and prioritise the care of those most at risk, but we cannot continue to turn the nation’s economy on and off until, and if, a vaccine arrives.
Coronavirus is here to stay for a long time and it is time to wake up to that fact instead of allowing ourselves to be whipped into a Covid hysteria fuelled by mostly unjustified fear.
