No more daily blogs about Covid-19. I started to write the new Omicron variant because I bitterly regretted not having written about the original Covid-19 when it first came along. Imagine, I later thought, if I had written a daily blog as the disaster unfolded. What a unique record it could have been, if not for anyone else, for me. But Omicron, we hope, could just be milder than the previous strains. Better still, it could be the beginning of the end of this ghastly virus which has claimed over 170,000 lives in this country alone. Not being noted for making good judgement calls, I nonetheless made a judgement call to call an end to Omicron blogs. We will see how things pan out.
This week, Boris the Liar will meet with his cabinet to decide whether to introduce new curbs to prevent the spread of Omicron and he will be confronted by a startling reality. The hard right libertarians of the Conservative party will not accept further restrictions as won’t the self-appointed heirs to Johnson’s throne, Brand Rishi Sunak and Liz ‘Pork Markets’ Truss, but more importantly neither will vast swaths of the country, including moderate, soggy liberal leaning lefties, like me.
I do not have a sensible and coherent view on what I feel should happen because my heart and my head are in the same place. My heart says we simply can’t go back to any form of the dark days when we couldn’t go anywhere or do anything because it would devastate the mental health of millions and destroy people’s businesses, in that order, always that order. And my head, despite understanding the gruesome possibility of the NHS buckling under the strain of even a lesser Covid, feels the same way. Lockdowns have consequences and for many, though by no means all of us, have dreadful and lasting consequences.
In any event, people are making their own choices now. My first thoughts will always be the well-being of others, primarily family and friends, and I will choose whether I go to the pub or the shops unless there is actual evidence that to do so would be the equivalent of committing mass murder. Sorry if I sound like a mythical Tory bencher like Private Eye’s legendary Sir Bufton Tufton, but so be it. Older people, like me, are making their own decisions. We’re testing, we’re avoiding certain situations; basically we don’t want to die. But we do want to live and Omicron, we so hope (but don’t pray because that’s just plain silly), weakening to become your more regular Coronavirus becomes a reality.
Only one qualification for me: the unvaccinated. ICUs have been filling up mainly by the unvaccinated and the vaccinated are paying the price. Simple solution: vaccine passports for major events and overseas travel. If the small minority don’t want Bill Gates’s microchip in their systems, let them stay at home, not the rest of us. If there’s a price to pay for freedom, let those who hold the rest of us back pay it. I’m a pretty tolerant guy but no longer, I am afraid, to those who choose not to do the right thing.
