England no longer obeys Johnson’s blockade orders

Photographer: Leon Neal / Getty Images

People across England are on the verge of being hit by a flood of new government ads on television, radio and social media that contain only one direct request: Stay home.

It’s a familiar message – and maybe that’s why the audience seems to pick it up.

The data show that the British are much more active during the current third national blockade than when the first “stay at home” emergency order was given last spring. There is more road traffic, more people on trains and more shoppers.

Government officials are worried that there are too many breaking the rules because Prime Minister Boris Johnson is urging the public to try harder to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. With the National Health Service burning under the weight of patients with Covid-19, the UK already has the highest number of deaths in Europe, at over 87,000.

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While there are early signs that infection rates are starting to drop in places like London, and one person in 20 has now been vaccinated, officials warn that life may not return to normal until spring.

The image of a collapsing state health system would risk causing further huge damage to Johnson State, with public confidence in the government’s handling of the crisis already severely affected since it began.

Crisis Hospital

“We are now seeing deferred cancer treatments, ambulances in line and intensive care units flowing into adjacent wards,” Johnson said Friday. “This is not the time for the slightest relaxation of our national decision and our individual efforts.”

Last week, schools and businesses were closed and people were told to stay home for work if they could, and to avoid all travel unless it was essential.

Despite the crisis, road traffic in the UK was still at 63% of pre-pandemic levels on January 11, government figures show. It is almost double the rate from the beginning of the first blockade in early April, when traffic fell to 35% of normal levels.

The use of public transport is also increasing by four times the number of rail passengers this week than at the beginning of the spring blockade. Despite close from non-essential stores, more people are shopping this time as well, according to research firm Springboard.

Schools are only open to the children of key workers, but report much higher levels of participation than in the spring. The latest government figures show that 14% of students in state-funded schools participated on January 11, compared to an overall level of only 2% in April.

Rule switches

Given the strong threat facing the country, why are people leaving more than they did when the pandemic hit? Are there more violations of the rules, is the audience just bored or are the rules themselves not harsh enough?

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The image is not unique in the UK, elsewhere in Europe, people are tired of wave after wave of restrictions. What makes England different is that, even from the beginning, the messaging was mixed from a government that was reluctant to limit people’s freedoms.

In Spain and Italy, which have imposed harsh blockades from the beginning, whole families have become accustomed to living with life-changing restrictions. In Madrid and Milan, everyone wears a mask outside, and children have to wear them to school. In London, outdoor face coverings are still optional.

At the beginning of the pandemic, England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, warned that citizens would “understandably be tired” of the restrictions.

But in recent polls, people insist they follow the rules. Stephen Reicher, a British government adviser and professor of social psychology at the University of St Andrews, rejected the concept of blocked “fatigue” as a way for authorities to shift the blame to the public.

“Some of the rules and the messages around them could be the problem,” he wrote in the British Medical Journal. First, during the summer, ministers encouraged people to return to work and offered them discounts to eat in restaurants.

Some of the restrictions seem to be more relaxed now compared to the beginning of the first block: nurseries are open to all children, there are childcare and support bubbles, and people can meet someone else for exercise. Restaurants are also open – albeit only for dining meals.

Mixed messages

Susan Michie, a professor of health psychology at University College London and a government adviser, said that “having more things open sends a mixed message” and makes people doubt that the country is “in a time of crisis”.

“On the one hand, they say ‘stay home,’ on the other hand, they allow universities, nurseries, places of worship, non-essential businesses to remain open,” she said.

But the increased activity could also be caused by a change in attitude towards the virus in about 11 months after the pandemic. Robert Dingwall, a professor of sociology at the University of Nottingham Trent, said people were frightened in the spring, but now it has become “normalized, a routine danger”.

He said that for many people who have not contracted the virus, there are “growing discrepancies” between their daily experiences and government press conferences that have reported countless deaths.

Sacrifice

The cabinet said the government had “set clear instructions to the public on what to do” to suppress the disease and “the public has made enormous sacrifices to prevent our NHS from becoming overwhelmed and to help rescue lives ”.

But senior government ministers have confused the image by offering different versions of the rules. Interior Minister Priti Patel said on Thursday that people should move alone, even if the rules allow work with a friend.

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Johnson himself has been criticized for cycling in East London Olympic Park, 7 miles from his home in Westminster, despite guidelines saying people should stay in their local areas.

In the end, it’s all up to the prime minister. A libertarian at heart, he fought from the beginning with the idea of ​​reducing freedoms. In December, he said it would be “sincerely inhuman” to ban people from gathering at Christmas before being forced to do exactly as the virus grew days later.

Even now, Johnson cannot be definitive in his messaging. On Friday, in a video on Twitter, he addressed people who intend to leave their homes to go out for the weekend. “Please,” he said. “Indeed, think twice.”

– With the assistance of Philip Brian Tabuas