Opinion: ‘Peril of sliding back into lockdown’

Councillor Shaz Nawaz, Labour Group leader on Peterborough City Council writes:
City council Labour Group Leader Shaz Nawaz.City council Labour Group Leader Shaz Nawaz.
City council Labour Group Leader Shaz Nawaz.

It gives me no pleasure to forecast that we are likely to be back in a lockdown situation in the near future.

On Monday, Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty presented some grim statistics indicating that the coronavirus is spreading again.

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I realise that the government wants to clamp down on our social behaviours, however their confusing messaging is at least partially to blame for the current rate of infection. For example, if you don’t want people to spread the virus, it may not be the best idea to encourage them to go back into the office.

I am pleased that local organisations are working hard to minimise the impact of the flu season: for example, Thorney Surgery delivered flu vaccinations to vulnerable people this past Saturday.

The flu combined with the coronavirus could be particularly lethal. However, there is a caveat: the vaccine does not provide 100% coverage. It is based on the best information available to the World Health Organisation, and sometimes that knowledge is imperfect.

We will still need to exercise caution and not act as if the flu vaccine makes us impervious to the illness.

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During the summer, the coronavirus’s impact on the rhythms of normal life were perhaps less noticeable. The pleasures of the sunshine and warmth were not denied to us: it was possible to go for walks in the park and in the country.

However, as we descend into what Keats called “the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”, and we spend increasing amounts of time indoors, the effects on our life will be more pronounced.

There will be no pantomime this year. Christmas parties will likely be virtual if they happen at all. There will be empty chairs at dining tables; some of our elderly will be spending the holidays in care homes, only able to interact with their loved ones through a pane of thick glass or via Facetime.

It may be time to think and reflect; it may be time to ask the question: how did it come to this?

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No government can anticipate every disaster. We would like to think that human intelligence is so powerful that we can achieve powers of sublime insight; every time we accumulate that much hubris, we are punished for it. I have looked at predictions from 2019 for the coming year: all of them were wildly wrong.

But if no administration can be completely prepared for events, it can make matters worse or better by its response.

The initial lockdown was successful: the curve flattened for a time.

However, in its rush to re-open society and the economy, it’s clear the government has acted with more haste than wisdom. It has been pushed around by headlines in tabloids that demanded freedom from lockdown. It tolerated hypocrisy, as evidenced by Dominic Cummings’s sojourn, in its ranks. It is now trying to shift the bulk of the blame back onto us, suggesting that we should don the sackcloth and ashes for not understanding the government’s confused messaging and strategy. Testing needs to increase dramatically but it is a mammoth task to get a test booked from what I am hearing.

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On a local level, I believe the Conservative administration is currently shellshocked.

There is happy talk about extending out the café culture, which is odd given the time of year. We should be thinking about the immediate future and ensuring that the difficulties of our present time are alleviated to the extent possible.

The Labour Group will do its best to point them in this direction.