Andy Richardson: 'A price worth paying in the name of ‘freedom’? Of course not'
Autumn is here. The virus is spreading. We knew it would.
On Twitter, people are grieving. A football fan wrote yesterday that his elderly mother died three months ago, his father this week. He warned people against complacency, against nihilistic demonstrations that conflate a war against a deadly pandemic with notions of freedom. How can he be ignored?
The Spanish Flu lasted for two years and killed people in four waves, claiming more than 50 million lives and infecting 500 million. That was at a time when the global population was 1.8 billion.
Today, it is 7.6 billion. Covid-19 appears to be as virulent and deadly. Extrapolate those figures and we arrive at more than 211 million deaths and 2.1 billion cases.
A price worth paying in the name of ‘freedom’? Of course not.
Spanish Flu came to an end when the population developed herd immunity, a solution that our Government flirted with briefly before realising it might kill six million people. Instead, a vaccine will bring this to an end.
While there’s little disputing the errors that the Government has made nor the incompetence and ineptitude all too often shown, it’s fair to say that had Sir Keir Starmer been in power he too would have struggled – a hypothetical since he was elected after Covid-19 began and has not faced the public at the ballot box.
The question in Spring was simple: when do we get back to normal?
The question as we head into the second wave is the same. Logic and history can help us answer that, in a way that mealy-mouthed politicians dare not.
There is talk of saving Christmas. We won’t. There had been talk of a vaccination being able to immunise those in the front line before the end of this year, with everyone receiving it soon after.
Does anyone believe that? When we consider that the Government has failed to implement test and trace, took six months to launch an app and messed up the exams, does anyone really think it will safely test, manufacture and deliver 66 million vaccinations in less than 12 months?
There’s an irrefutable conclusion. We are in this for the long haul. It may be years, not months.
We can protect ourselves and others by following the rules. Social distancing, washing hands and wearing masks may be a drag but they saves lives.
