Get Covid done

The slogan that helped Boris Johnson win a landslide victory in the 2019 general election was very simple: Get Brexit Done. I say helped because obviously the idea of having Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister also concentrated minds. A narcissist populist liar and shyster in charge of the country was clearly preferable to a useless elderly hard left career backbencher who seemed to have more in common with overseas tyrants than your average middle of the road Brit. Not exactly a great choice, was it, but now Johnson is trying the same trick with the deadly virus that has killed over 150,000 of us: Get Covid Done.

Johnson’s chancellor Rishi Sunak described this as the “post Covid era” which came as a surprise to me given that in the last seven days there were over 289,000 new cases, over 1000 deaths and nearly 7000 hospitalisations. But the argument that “we need to live with this virus” has won great traction with large numbers of the public. I heard someone say last week that “we need to protect the vulnerable but life must go on for the rest of us”. Life is certainly going on for the rest of us but protecting the vulnerable? I’m not so sure about that.

What is happening in England is a quite deliberate government tactic to allow the virus to spread throughout society, specifically the young, in order to bring about herd immunity. No other mitigation is in place to fight the virus except vaccines. Although the numbers of infections are high, deaths and hospitalisations are not, certainly compared with earlier in the year. Is herd immunity a gamble?

I start from a position of supporting the reopening of society. I would much prefer it if we were still compelled to wear masks in certain areas, I still maintain social distancing where appropriate and I’m a strong supporter of the wider introduction of vaccine passports. Speaking on the basis of anecdotes, my feeling is that people think it’s all over bar the shouting. The get back to normal life argument has been won, even among many people who are clinically vulnerable. It’s the unknowns that bother me.

For all we know about Covid, there’s an awful lot we don’t know. Evidence of longer term general health problems is beginning to emerge, particularly for those suffering from long Covid. But what about the group of people government has allowed to be mass infected: the young.

In the last week, 297 children in England were hospitalised with Covid. Of that number, 126 were aged between 0-5. To be admitted to hospital with Covid means that those children are very poorly indeed. I am no virologist or any kind of expert, but I do trust and believe those who are experts and if we are going to protect our own children, let’s get them vaccinated as soon as possible. Instead of dithering, as Johnson’s government is doing, why not launch a major campaign to convince children to get their jabs? As we know, vaccines can prevent hospitalisation and death. If 300 largely unvaccinated children are ending up on a hospital ward every week, should we not be taking steps to prevent it happening to anymore children?

If we are not going to adopt a Vaccine + strategy to deal with Covid, can’t we at least vaccinate as many children as humanly possible? They might not be our children but that’s no reason for looking the other way. 150,000 deaths is the best reason not to.