A year later, frustrations and protests arise

LONDON – When the first coronavirus blockade was imposed in the UK exactly a year ago, most would have tried to believe that after 12 months, restrictions on public and private life would still be in place.

Given that this is now a reality, there are growing signs that the British public is frustrated by the constraints, with anti-blockade protests hitting the capital over the weekend.

Although the UK has set a roadmap for lifting restrictions, with the government aiming to ease most Covid curbs by June 21, there have been signs of smoke in recent days that the government does not expect normal life to resume even then.

Government ministers and health experts who advised them have made a series of comments suggesting that summer holidays are now “extremely unlikely”, given the situation in other parts of Europe, where coronavirus cases are on the rise due to new variants of the virus.

Another health expert – the head of immunization at Public Health England – suggested on Sunday that masks and social distancing measures may be needed for several years.

The government has also indicated that it wants to extend its authority to reverse any easing of measures and, thanks to the support of the opposition Labor Party, expects to receive approval for the extension of emergency powers by October, despite a group of parliamentarians from within the ruling Conservative Party. describing the movement as “authoritarian”.

Combine these factors and a summer of freedom for the UK public begins to seem less likely, potentially setting the stage for more public discontent as the British become desperate to return to “normalcy”. Especially since the launch of the vaccine continues at a fast pace; on Saturday, a record total of 844,285 first and second doses were given to those in line for shooting, compared to 711,157 people who received a dose of vaccine on Friday.

March 23 is the first anniversary of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement to the British public that the country will be blocked, with the government implementing unprecedented peacetime measures designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus that first appeared in that country. period – largely unheard of by the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.

Then, when Johnson made the first “home stay” announcement that citizens are now accustomed to, the UK reported a daily increase in the number of deaths caused by the virus, with 335 deaths in 24 hours in hospitals and medical staff struggling to understand Covid-19 and effective treatments.

It is fast advancing a year, and the United Kingdom has the ignominious position of having the fifth largest number of coronavirus cases in the world, after the USA, Brazil, India and Russia, according to a report from Johns Hopkins University. To date, the UK has reported more than 4.3 million infections and more than 126,000 deaths – the fifth largest number of deaths worldwide after the US, Brazil, Mexico and India.

A minute of silence will be held in the UK on Tuesday to reflect on deaths from the virus.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement that “the last 12 months have affected us all very much and I offer my sincere condolences to those who have lost their loved ones.” He added that the country has shown “a great spirit demonstrated by our nation in the last year.”

The reasons behind the higher number of deaths in the UK compared to its continental counterparts in continental Europe are multiple, but the underlying factors include a higher rate of obesity, pre-existing health conditions and socio-economic factors.

The government, for its part, has strongly criticized its blockade of being too late, failed to implement border controls and controls on travelers to the UK, failed to adequately protect health workers and presided over a system of inadequate testing and tracking still considered sub-para. In short, he was accused of not being prepared for a pandemic and of mismanaging it when he arrived.

A bright spot and a saving grace was the highly regarded scientific community in the UK, which has been at the forefront of research into the virus, its effects and its trials, looking for the best way to combat it. In June 2020, for example, health experts in the UK, led by the University of Oxford, discovered that a cheap steroid treatment, Dexamethasone, could greatly reduce the risk of death when given to the sickest patients with Covid.

An even greater discovery came when the University of Oxford and the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca successfully developed and tested one of a handful of effective vaccines, creating even more remarkable photography, as it can take years to to develop vaccines. Vaccine research in the UK has also been boosted by government funding.

The UK was the first country in the world to approve and launch the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in early December and quickly launched a fast-paced national immunization program.

In January, the AstraZeneca vaccine was added to the arsenal and the vaccination program went from strength to strength, surprising even the most cynical British and winning the country’s health experts and applause from the National Health Service for bold decisions and a well-managed role management.

Unlike other European countries, which have erroneously questioned the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine over the age of 65, the UK has continued mass immunizations with the elderly and priority health workers.

Health experts also considered it critical at the time, but now replicated in other countries, that the difference between the first and second doses of coronavirus vaccines should be extended to 12 weeks to provide more initial protection for more. people.

The decision was justified by subsequent clinical data showing that the strategy was effective and even increased the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The launch exceeded expectations; as of March 20, more than 27.6 million British adults have received a first dose of vaccine and more than 2.2 million have received the second shot, according to government data.

There is palpable unrest among members of the public – especially those who oppose the blockade in the first place – as well as the business community, for society to reopen. Last weekend’s anti-blockade protests in London drew thousands of protesters chanting “Freedom!” as they marched through the capital. Subsequently, quarrels between police and protesters led to more than 30 arrests.

So when it comes to the vaccine, it’s been a “so far so good” case. The UK has seen the benefit, the number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths steadily declining.

The launch rate was seen as critical, at a time when new variants of the virus appeared and threatened to undermine the positive effects of vaccines.

Continental Europe sees the ramifications of its launch probably easier to understand, given that the EU has chosen to order vaccines as a bloc and, crucially, ordered later than the UK and the US.

In addition to slower supply and production problems, the EU has had to contend with vaccine hesitation, which is not prevalent in the UK, and bureaucracy, again a factor that is not so important in the UK, where care services health are largely united – well-connected centralized system.

But this week, the UK faces a potential challenge to launch if EU leaders, meeting on Thursday, decide to block exports of Covid vaccines made en bloc to countries such as the UK, which are still ahead in their immunization programs.

Johnson allegedly tried to calm such a move by talking with his counterparts in France and Germany over the weekend. But if the EU goes further, the UK could face other supply bottlenecks; it is already expecting a shortage of supplies due to a reported delay in exports from an Indian production plant.

The delays could cost the UK a successful launch so far and give citizens their freedoms, although the government has so far said it intends to offer a first dose of vaccine to all adults by 31 July.