Me just under 6 months ago wrote:Its just for 15 days, to flatten the curve...
Its just another month until we get to summer...
Its just a mask in on public transport no drama
Ita just wearing a mask in supermarkets not that big a deal...
You only have to wear your mask in the pub when you get up to go to the toilet, your fine at the table...
Its only a local lockdown this time...
Its only another six months lockdown, we'll be good after that...
Its only a mandatory vaccine, just like the flu jab...
Its only if you havent had the vaccine that you wont be allowed to travel...
Its only if you havent had your latest vaccine update added to your digital passport that you won't be able to work/claim benefits/marry/breed...
We are pavlov's dogs slowly being re-educated one small step at a time.
I reckon we're somewhere in between the last two points at the minute.
At the time I posted this, Boris was making fairly loud announcements that we would never have a vaccine passport, and it was un-British to have a papers based society - because we've seen how that pans out and it is never good.
Now just under six-months on and we're so conditioned that we're willing to forget about all these troublesome things like civil liberty and inalienable rights, as long as we can get back to 'normal'. The government doesn't have to push these restrictions of liberty onto us, we're practically begging them to implement them. One poll had 62% of people saying they would be happy to use a vaccine passport to go to the pub.
Like I say anything to get back to normal, that we all desperately want to get back to, me included.
However, before we all sign up for mass tracking so we can watch football, have a beer and all other good things, just take one moment to ask what was it that really took us away from that normal in the first place?
Was it a virus that at its peak had a mortality rate of around 0.5% even when factoring in the most vulnerable - whose average age of death from Covid was actually higher than the average life expectancy of the population? A virus whose total global death percentage is almost directly the same as the Hong Kong Flu when factoring in total population?
Was it really this virus, which is evidently real and dangerous, and just to say, my heart goes out to anyone who has lost loved ones to it, but was it really this virus that stole 'normal' away?
Or was it the draconian over-reaction of the government to 'protect' us all by locking us all up? A move that contradicted the World Health Organisation's own recommendations on only implementing lockdown on a short-term, localised basis.
Should we blame the virus for our loss of normal or our government that made a calculation based on highly questionable data modelling (by a man that spectacularly got foot and mouth, mad-cow disease, bird-flu and swine flu projections massively wrong) to decide that the risk from this disease with a 99.7% survival rate for anyone under 75 was so great that life-saving cancer treatments were to be put on hold, mass deterioration of mental health on a society-wide basis should be brushed under the carpet and the most obscene transfer of wealth from small businesses to a handful of billionaires was all well and good?
Should we trust a government that promised there would be no more national lockdowns to then move the goalposts and put everyone in the country under localised lockdown? A government that consistently stated vaccine passports wouldn't be introduced while simultaneously working with digital vaccine passport providers on implementation behind the scenes?
Fairplay, the media bombardment and lockdowns did their job well and I understand why so many are desperate to return to normal, but this is no the way to get back there. This just takes us further away.
Finally, just to clarify my position before I get accused of being a granny killer or a conspiracy nut or both and worse...
As I've said many times over, those who wish to get the vaccine should be entitled to do so. I'm not even anti-vaccine, my kids have had MMR and I have had many vaccines in my life for travel.
I've been consistent and open that I remain dubious about the speed at which these vaccines have been produced and particularly the indemnity given to the vaccine providers as well as the hyperbole that has been driven around the virus and the many subtle sleights of hand that have been used to magnify its dangers.
I've always said I'll wait quietly at the back of the queue and see how things play out, and seeing as I've yet to be offered a vaccine (being the young spritely chicken that I am I'm not quite on the list currently) it's not something I have had to give personal consideration to as yet.
But that has always been my point, choosing to be vaccinated should be down to personal choice.
However, mandatory vaccination is a huge abuse of power and raises massive ethical questions. The coercion of being excluded from aspects of society is just a media-friendly approach to mandatory vaccination and this feels like just one more step down that road that started over a year ago with 15 days to flatten the curve.
I'm sure someone will come back with it's your choice if you want to go to the football then you'll have to get the vaccine. That's missing the point though - the thing is the goalposts keep moving and it is death by a thousand cuts.
Once people get used to a vaccine passport for everyday things like going to the football it is a lot easier to move the posts again - vaccine passport required to go to the shops, for your kids to be in school, to claim benefits.
I think this is a very dangerous path to go down is all I'm trying to say (in a long-winded way - sorry for long post)