In an attempt to slow a surge in the spread of COVID-19, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered a second national lockdown for England on November 5. That lockdown ended on December 2 and appears to have had little effect in London as the U.K.’s capital now has a higher rate of infection than before the most recent lockdown.
According to Paul Hunter, a microbiologists and a professor of health protection at the University of East Anglia, “There were more cases at the end of the lock-down than at the start in London.”
So now, just over a week removed from a draconian national lockdown, health officials are warning that London should begin bracing for tier 3 restrictions, which includes the closing of bars, pubs, cafe’s and restaurants (except for take-out), banning all live events and a prohibition against any mixing of households. So, basically, another lockdown.
In England, a three-tiered system of COVID-19 restrictions is in place with tier 1 being the lowest state of alert up to tier 3 being the highest. After the most recent lockdown, London was place in tier 2.
The next tier review isn’t scheduled until December 16 with any new tier designations not set to take effect until December 19. But that might not be quick enough according to some health experts.
“[The government] needs to decide in the next 48 hours whether to move London into tier 3 otherwise they really risk a terrible situation for London, with deaths going up during the Christmas period,” warned Professor John Ashton, a former regional director of public health for northwest England.
“They might have to go to complete lock-down,” Ashton concluded.
With a national lockdown having proven completely ineffective, one has to wonder why the government would double down and impose what amounts to another one on the citizens of its largest city.
At the beginning of the November 5 national lockdown, London’s infection rate was just over 150 per 100,000 people. Now, the infection rate is 177 cases per 100,000 people and rising.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan is against moving the city to tier 3 restrictions for now, saying that it would be “catastrophic” to businesses. Nevertheless, Khan also sounded alarm bells. “The number of cases in London are rising again and if we don’t all work together now we may face tougher restrictions across the capital.”
Khan continued: “Londoners have worked incredibly hard to help bring down the number of cases before, but we must not risk undoing all the sacrifices that have been made by lowering our guard and allowing cases to rise further ahead of Christmas.”
A spokesman for Khan further emphasized the need to follow the government’s rules, even though they appear not to have worked in November. “If we begin to act like this virus has gone away we could see a devastating further surge in cases at a time of year when our NHS is already under enough pressure,” the spokesman said.
The new lockdown hysteria comes as the U.K.’s National Health Service has begun giving a new COVID-19 vaccine to some of the country’s most vulnerable population. An 81-year-old Warwickshire man by the very British name of William Shakespeare received the first dose on Tuesday.
Shakespeare said that receiving the vaccine made him “proud to be British.”
In an interview on Good Morning Britain, Health Secretary Matt Hancock appeared to well up with tears while discussing the vaccine’s roll out. “It’s been such a tough year for so many people and there’s William Shakespeare putting it so simply. We’ve got to get on with our lives. There’s still a few months to go. I’ve still got this worry…. We can’t blow it now.”
Hancock was pilloried in the British press for what many referred to as “fake” tears.
Fake tears or not, Hancock’s display was no worse than what government and media have done to us since the very beginning of the COVID-19 scare. At every turn, we’ve been emotionally manipulated to accept governmental and societal strictures on our behavior. We’ve been force to wear masks, stay away from loved ones, and essentially avoid human contact all for a nebulous “greater good.”
It’s getting really old by now. And this new threat of more lockdowns in London — after a recent lockdown only led to a worse infection rate — is just more of the same manipulation.
