England is no longer listening to Johnson’s blocking requests

Photographer: Leon Neal / Getty Images

People across England are about to be hit by a flood of new government ads on television, radio and social media containing a forceful demand: Stay at home.

It’s a familiar message – which may be why the public seems to be shrugging.

The data shows that the British are much more active during the current third national blockade than when the first emergency order to “stay home” was issued last spring. There is more traffic on the roads, more people on the trains and more buyers taking trips.

Government officials are concerned, many are breaking the rules while Prime Minister Boris Johnson urges the public to do more to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. With the National Health Service giving way under the weight of Covid-19 patients, the UK already has the highest number of deaths in Europe, with more than 87,000.

UK closes travel corridors; Arrivals need negative test

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

Images of a collapse of the state health system would risk inflicting even more enormous damage on Johnson’s position, with public confidence in the government’s handling of the crisis already severely affected since its inception.

Crisis Hospital

“Now we are seeing sadly postponed cancer treatments, ambulances lined up and intensive care units overflowing to adjacent wards,” Johnson said on Friday. “This is not the time for the least relaxation of our national determination and individual efforts.”

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

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

Public transport usage has also grown, with four times the number of rail passengers this week than at the beginning of the spring blockade. despite the close of non-essential stores, more people are also shopping this time, according to research firm Springboard.

Schools are only open to children of key workers, but are reporting much higher levels of attendance than in the spring. The latest government data shows that 14% of students in state-funded schools attended school on January 11, compared with an overall level of just 2% in April.

Rule breakers

Given the great threat facing the country, why are people leaving more than when the pandemic started? Is there more rule breaking, is the public bored, or are the rules themselves not strict enough?

UK faces more severe blocking restrictions as Covid infections increase

The scenario is not unique to the United Kingdom. Elsewhere in Europe, people got tired of waves and waves of restrictions. What makes England different is that, from the beginning, the messages from a government that was reluctant to restrict people’s freedoms were confusing.

In Spain and Italy, which have imposed severe restrictions from the start, entire families have become accustomed to living with restrictions that have changed their lives. In Madrid and Milan, everyone wears a mask outside and children should wear it at school. In London, outdoor facial coverage is still optional.

Back in the beginning of the pandemic, England’s chief physician Chris Whitty warned that citizens would “understandably be fatigued” by the restrictions.

But in recent research, people insist that they are still following the rules. Stephen Reicher, a UK government adviser and professor of social psychology at the University of St Andrews, dismissed the concept of “fatigue” from the blockade as a way for authorities to shift the blame to the public.

“Some of the rules and the messages around them can be the problem,” he wrote in the British Medical Journal. On the one hand, during the summer, ministers encouraged people to return to work and gave discounts to eat in restaurants.

Some of the restrictions seem to be more relaxed now compared to the beginning of the first block: the nurseries are open to all children, there are day care centers and support bubbles and people can meet with someone else to exercise. The restaurants are also open – though for take-out meals only.

Mixed Messages

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

“On the one hand, they are saying ‘stay home’, on the other hand, they are allowing universities, daycare centers, places of worship and non-essential businesses to remain open,” she said.

But the increase in activity may also be the result of a change in attitude towards the virus, about 11 months after the start of the pandemic. Robert Dingwall, a professor of sociology at Nottingham Trent University, said people were understandably scared in the spring, but now it has become “normalized, a routine risk”.

He said that for many people who did not fall ill with the virus, there was “an increasingly discrepancy” between their daily experiences and the government press conferences reporting numerous deaths.

Sacrifice

The Government Office said that the government “gave clear instructions to the public about what they need to do” to suppress the disease and that “the public made enormous sacrifices to prevent our NHS from becoming overwhelmed and helping to save lives”.

But government ministers confused the picture by offering different versions of the rules. Interior Minister Priti Patel said on Thursday that people should exercise alone, although the rules allow activities with a friend.

Johnson’s Cross-London Ride threatens its own block in the UK

Johnson himself was criticized for riding a bicycle in the Olympic Park in east London, seven miles from his home in Westminster, despite guidelines saying people should stay in their local areas.

In the end, it all comes back to the Prime Minister. A libertarian at heart, he struggled from the beginning with the idea of ​​restricting liberties. In December, he declared that it would be “downright inhuman” to ban people from gathering for Christmas, before being forced to do just that, as the virus appeared days later.

Even now, Johnson is unable to be definitive in his messages. In a video on Twitter on Friday, he addressed people who plan to leave their homes to go out this weekend. “Please,” he said. “Seriously, think twice.”

– With the help of Philip Brian Tabuas