England no longer listens to Johnson’s closure orders

Photographer: Leon Neal / Getty Images

People across England are about to be hit by a deluge of new government ads on television, radio and social media that contain a blunt demand: stay home.

It’s a well-known message, and it may be why the public seems to accept it.

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

Government officials worry too much violating the rules as Prime Minister Boris Johnson urges the public to do more to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. With the National Health Service suffering from Covid-19 patients, 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 decline in places like London, and that one in 20 people has been vaccinated, officials warn that life would still not return to normal in the spring.

Images of the collapse of a state health care system could risk causing enormous damage to Johnson’s position, with public confidence in the government’s handling of the crisis already severely affected since it began.

Crisis Hospital

“We’re now seeing cancer treatments being sadly postponed, ambulances queuing up and intensive care units spreading to adjacent neighborhoods,” 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 asked to stay home to work if they could, and to avoid all travel unless it was essential.

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

Public transport use has also increased, with four times the number of rail passengers this week than at the start of spring closure. Despite the closing of non-essential stores, this time there are also more people buying, according to research firm Springboard.

Schools are only open to children of key workers, but have much higher levels of attendance 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.

Breaking rules

Given the strong threat facing the country, why do people come out more than they did when the pandemic began? Is there more breaking of rules, is the public bored or are the rules themselves not harsh enough?

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The image is not exclusive to the UK anywhere else 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 with a government that was reluctant to curb the freedoms of the people.

In Spain and Italy, which imposed harsh closures from the beginning, entire families became accustomed to living with life-altering restrictions. In Madrid and Milan, everyone wears a mask outside and children have to wear them to school. In London, outdoor facials are still optional.

At the start of the pandemic, British chief medical officer Chris Whitty warned that citizens would “understandably get tired” of the restrictions.

But in recent polls, people insist they follow the rules. Stephen Reicher, a UK government adviser and professor of social psychology at St Andrews University, rejected the concept of blocking ‘fatigue’ as a way for authorities to transfer the blame to the public.

“Some of the rules and the messaging surrounding them may 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 them discounts on food at restaurants.

Some of the restrictions now seem to be more relaxed compared to the start of the first closure: nurseries are open to all children, there are child care and support bubbles, and people can meet with someone else to Do exercise. Restaurants are also open, though only for takeaway food.

Mixed messages

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

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

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

He said that for many people who had not become ill with the virus, there was “growing discrepancy” between their daily experiences and government press conferences reporting countless deaths.

Sacrifices

The cabinet office said the government had “set clear instructions to the public on what to do” to suppress the disease and that “the public has made huge sacrifices, to prevent our NHS from overflowing and helping to save vides “.

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

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Johnson himself was criticized for cycling in East London Olympic Park, 7 miles from his home in Westminster, although guidelines say people should stay in their local areas.

In the end, it all comes back to the prime minister. Libertarian at heart, he has fought from the beginning with the idea of ​​curbing freedoms. In December, he declared that it would be “frankly inhumane” to ban people from meeting during Christmas, before being forced to do exactly that, as the virus rose days later.

Even now, Johnson cannot end up being definitive in his messaging. On Friday, in a Twitter video, he addressed people planning to leave home to leave this weekend. “Please,” he said. “Seriously, think twice.”

– With the assistance of Philip Brian Tabuas