Opening up

On Monday 14th June, Boris Johnson will address the nation. He will praise the “great British public for all (their) sacrifices” adding “I know how difficult this has been for you all” and he may forget to tell us that his ‘roadmap out of restrictions’ isn’t quite as irreversible as he promised. With infection rates rising rapidly, greatly enhanced by the new Indian variant, and the ‘R’ rate now between 1.2 and 1.4, Johnson will do his “I’m so sorry” speech and announce that freedom is postponed.

He won’t reintroduce any of the old restrictions, at least not until hospitalisations and deaths start taking off again, but I sense a problem here. For many people – dare I suggest most people? – the pandemic is over. I mean, not really over because the virus is going to be around forever, but the return to near normal we have enjoyed in recent weeks and months is not something we will agree to give up, not this time.

The numbers will see Johnson delay the end of all restrictions for a few weeks – my guess is four. The purpose of that I do not know nor understand. My guess is that the rising number of infections is specifically because things have opened up again. Schools, many more workplaces, shops, pubs; mostly indoor places. What will be the purpose of leaving things exactly as they are for a few weeks? Numbers won’t go down. They’ll go up more. So, is the policy to allow numbers to increase but increase less than if we were allowed to go to the bar instead of having drinks brought to our table?

I have always wanted to follow the science. What a shame Johnson and his clown car government didn’t bother. But now I find myself, not in the anti-lockdown crowd, but feeling that we are now at a crossroads. Do we accept that COVID-19 is here to stay because it is, or do we keep locking down periodically until the 12th of never? Doesn’t there come a time when the vulnerable have all been offered a vaccine to start living with COVID forever, starting 21st June?

I suspect Johnson’s instinct will be to open stuff up and hang the consequences, but that voices around him will prevail, meaning that 2021, which was supposed to be a big improvement on 2020, is every bit as bad. And the main question is this: if not 21st June, then when?

When I hear figures of authority tell the great unwashed to “keep following the rules”, I wonder which world they live in. I am sure there are some people who are still following the rules, always assuming people know what they currently are, but the evidence of my own eyes suggests that people have had enough of lockdowns and restrictions. And bar a catastrophic rise in deaths, minds will not be changed.

We face a future of being jabbed every year, maybe twice a year for the rest of our lives. It’s that or we stay in our houses until we die.

My mind is pretty well made up: the end of most restrictions if not all of them must end. And the only restrictions people will have to accept will be not going to pubs because pubs are closed. If they are open, people want to visit them. Johnson won’t be able to stop people getting on with their lives if they are allowed to do so.

Don’t praise or patronise us Bozo. We’ve all had enough. Spend more on vaccines and treatments. Your experts have told us we will need to live with the virus. Isn’t it about time we starting doing just that?