With the spread of the Indian variant of SARS Cov2, it was almost inevitable that Boris Johnson’s government would delay releasing Britons from the onerous restrictions imposed upon them in order to curtail the spread of this disease. This will end up having massive costs imposed on small businesses and delay further the economic freedom that these businesses need in order to rebuild after such a dangerous economic shutdown.
The only way that this delay to reopening can be acceptable is for it to be an opportunity to ramp up the vaccination programme by bringing forward the second doses of covid vaccines. This is because partial vaccination may not completely prevent serious illness among those who encounter the Indian variant of the covid virus.
Whilst the UK’s covid vaccination programme is one of the best in the world, only Israel has done more and vaccinated more of its population than the UK has, the long gaps between first and second vaccinations in the UK have left some, too many in my view, Britons less than adequately protected from covid than maybe they should have been. Of course there is a need to allow bodies to build up antibodies against covid following the first vaccination before the second dose, but I fail to see why the gaps have to be so long? I had my first vaccination in late May but I’ve got to wait until early August for my second shot. This strikes me as too long a gap and a gap that allows people to be at risk of covid and the serious implications of it, for significantly longer than they should be before they get their second vaccination.
It’s quite possible that this additional extension to lockdown might have been averted or at least tempered had the UK government taken different actions to those that they have taken. Surely the government must have known that those who are not fully vaccinated may well be not fully protected? If that is the case then why did the Government continue to keep Britain’s borders propped open even to those individuals who may well have travelled from nations where this latest variant is so prevalent? It strikes me as utter madness to allow travel freely from areas where variants of concern are endemic, to a nation such as Britain where the population is not vaccinated to a sufficient percentage and also not fully vaccinated. I appreciate that politically things were difficult for the Government, it needed to negotiate a trade deal with India and didn’t want to stir the pot unnecessarily or offend India at a crucial time by closing the borders to Indian citizens. However it may have been the case that the Government prioritised the trade deal at the expense of the health of Britons. It remains to be seen whether this action will have cost the economy the same or even more than the trade deal with earn British companies and the British economy.
The Government has locked Britons up for another four weeks and they need to use this time to increase the effort of the vaccine programme. Big efforts to increase vaccine take up in specific areas is all well and good and may well bring more people to be vaccinated. But the government appears to be a bit squeamish about addressing cultural issues with regards to vaccination. For example I’ve been told by Sikh friends and those who live in areas dominated by ‘the religion of peace’ that there is a significant resistance to vaccination, not shared by Sikhs or Hindus, either because these communities have a fatalistic ‘leave it to Allah’ attitude or they have bought into conspiracy theories about vaccination as being unislamic/dangerous/a Jewish plot against Muslims. The government needs to address this issue or we will continue to see areas like Tower Hamlets where in May only 36% of over 18’s had received their first covid vaccination as opposed to 65% of the general population, fall behind in vaccination rates.
The Government should also use this four week period to deal with another major problem that is mostly afflicting the self employed. This is that the covid vaccine, like any other medication can have a side effect. For some, such as myself, the side effects have been remarkably light and only really manifested itself as a bit of soreness around the injection site, but for others it can lay them out with flu like symptoms for several days or more. I’ve been speaking to a few people who are self employed and they are refusing to be vaccinated against covid on the grounds that they cannot afford to take time off to deal with any side effects of the vaccine.
One person told me that unlike an employed person they have to work all the time and at every opportunity, they can’t afford to take time off to sit in bed and wait until the flu like symptoms subside. If the government wants to reach this group and get them vaccinated then they must address the issue of those who cannot afford to take time off work. The Government should be issuing some form of grant to all those who are self employed and are fearful of side effects from the vaccine that would cover at least a fortnight’s earnings that they may lose. Of course some people will take the money, get vaccinated and not have any side effects and just pocket the free money, that’s a risk that needs to be taken, but for others who are self employed such money could not only be a lifeline but could also increase vaccine take up. Maybe the government could use some of the money that the NHS is currently wasting on ‘diversity and inclusion’ non-jobs to support those who genuinely are afraid that if they even lose one day’s work then they are done for?
To a significant degree Britain is in the position that we are in because of Government cock ups. The Government failure to close or restrict the borders when they should have done is probably the biggest error that I can see in all this. The government has failed to address the cultural issues that cause vaccine hesitancy in some communities and has also failed to support those who may happily accept vaccination provided that they didn’t lose out or potentially lose out financially by doing so.
By not restricting entry to the UK at a time when it was eminently sensible to do so and which other nations, most notably Israel, have done and by not addressing the other issues that affect vaccine take up, the Government has taken one step forward with the excellent vaccine roll out, but two steps back through self inflicted problems. The Government has given itself four weeks to sort out the mess that they are in and which they have got the rest of us in. It remains to see whether or not they will sort out these messes. For me the litmus test will be if the NHS stops bullshitting around and brings forward my second vaccine as that will give me some indication that the Government has upped their vaccination game. If nothing happens and my second vaccine is still scheduled for August then I shall know that the government has yet again failed and there has been no improvement in the vaccine programme, something that is necessary for the nation to fully reopen.
