‘Freedom’ has never felt more bogus

Editorial: This impatience to lift all Covid restrictions is obscene. It will cost lives

(Brian Adcock)

It seems to have been forgotten remarkably quickly that the “roadmap” out of lockdown was supposed to be contingent, driven by data not dates, and that the indicative timetable was a set of “not before” days, rather than deadlines to be reached almost at all costs. Not any more.

In recent days a kind of bogus freedom fever has overtaken ministers. All talk of flattening the sombrero, sending coronavirus packing, and defeating the invisible enemy has been silenced. Now the nation has been told to just go away and get used to “living with the virus”, much as with flu, accepting the inevitable risks and damage of infection, including long-term disability and death. It is as if the government were in a parallel universe, where the Delta variant isn’t spreading at an alarming rate, and so rapidly that, despite the incomplete protections of a partially vaccinated population, and a lower fatality rate, it will inevitably surge and there will be more waves of infection.

It is not a choice between a wave of illness now, resulting in a smaller wave in winter; as the virus progresses and evolves, there may be many more deadly waves. The choice is between patience now, with longer-term protection as the vaccination programme completes its work, or, frankly, letting the virus rip, and especially through the young.

The idea of “living with the virus” might be at least logically sound, if callous, if all the available options to bear down on the coronavirus and minimise its spread had been exhausted, as they have mostly been with influenza, aside from the annual flu jab. Yet, the options on Covid are not exhausted. A decisive suppression of the coronavirus is at hand, as the necessary 85 per cent coverage of the vaccine across the population approaches in the coming weeks. It is like a marathon runner giving up the contest a few hundred metres before the end of the gruelling ordeal. The rising tide of infections, and a lower trajectory of hospitalisations and deaths, suggest that the Delta variant is winning the race against the vaccines – so this is hardly a moment to ease up the pace of protecting the public.

Most disappointing of all is the feeble approach to social distancing and masks in indoor settings, including public transport and supermarkets. The Delta variant is notoriously infectious. Given the risks, it seems odd, to say the least, not to ask people to put up with relatively minor inconveniences, and callous, given the deadly risks to people who have to work in those sectors. Masks, especially, are there to protect others more than the wearers, and now their use will be mostly a matter of “personal responsibility”, which sounds commendable, and normally is, but doesn’t really work in controlling a pandemic. We will soon see how responsible the public are willing to be; whenever they’re asked about sticking to mask-wearing, government ministers seem unwilling to give much of a lead.

This impatience to celebrate so-called freedom day is obscene. It will cost lives, and it need not if delayed for a few months more. The rush to return to normal will leave many people with long Covid and far from living their lives to their full potential or normally for years to come. Worst of all, there is the distinct risk that the subsequent waves in the autumn and winter will necessitate fresh, panicky lockdowns, or else standing by as the NHS collapses under the weight of the outbreaks and the backlog of urgent non-Covid cases. “Freedom” has never felt more bogus.