People are now moving faster than governments over Covid rules – for hospitality, this is a disaster

What governments mandate is important, but what people actually choose to do is more so when it comes to the future direction of the pandemic, says Hamish McRae

Despite a boost to the services sector, which includes the pub trade, consumer-facing companies are still behind where they were 20 months ago (Gareth Fuller/PA) (PA Archive)

Cancel culture has taken on a new meaning for the supposedly festive season, with swathes of events being cancelled and all the disruption and misery we have come to know so well. The UK has become a test bed for how to respond (or perhaps not to respond) to the omicron variant, as a result of it reaching the UK a week or so ahead of most other developed nations.

We will learn more about omicron in the next few days. As well as the push for vaccine booster shots, there will presumably be more restrictions in the various parts of the UK, and Scotland is already moving in that direction. Behaviour is already changing, however. People are moving faster than governments. For the hospitality industry this is a disaster – all those cancelled office parties. It is another huge blow to the airlines. France, which was moved to the highest travel risk category by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention last week, may tighten its controls further. Not much point in booking a skiing holiday if you are worried you might not get there – better to put it off till the clouds lift.

People everywhere respond differently to new threats. The young are different from the old. East and west Germany have shown huge variations in vaccine take-up. New York is very different from Florida. The US is seeing a particularly sharp increase in cases in Washington State, and California and New York have brought back requirements to wear masks indoors. The US as a whole seems to be taking a more relaxed attitude to omicron than the UK, certainly at an official level, but anecdotally at a personal level too.