Unions are digging their heels in and scientists have voiced their concerns after Boris Johnson announced that all remaining Covid laws including the requirement to self-isolate would be scrapped within a fortnight. Free testing is also set to be phased out as the country learns to live with Covid and treat it like flu.
The resistance comes as a poll finds that three quarters of the public want self-isolation rules to continue, half say forever, while just 17% support the move. MailOnline has the story.
Unison, Britain’s largest union serving more than 1.3million members from swathes of the public sector, has accused the Prime Minister of going “too far, too soon”, insisting that the virus “hasn’t disappeared” – despite a raft of data suggesting the worst is now over.
SAGE scientists have also warned of the “dangers” of the PM’s plan to make England the first country in the world to scrap all Covid rules, after it emerged Mr. Johnson had not discussed it with the committee which is now infamous for its gloomy predictions about the pandemic.
And business leaders desperate to get staff back into largely-empty offices costing them a fortune admit they are struggling to compel people to return because workers are now so used to working from home.
This has been compounded by a new YouGov poll of nearly 4,500 Britons that shows three-quarters of people believe the self-isolation requirement after a positive Covid test should remain in place. Half of people questioned admitted they want the legal requirement to stay in place forever.
Christina McAnea, general secretary of the public sector union UNISON, said: “Everybody wants to get back to normal, but Covid risks haven’t disappeared. This is going too far, way too soon. Infections are still rife in schools. Large numbers of pupils and staff are off. Allowing a premature return could lead to a further jump in infections and disrupt learning for thousands more children and young people.”
The resistance comes despite Covid infections falling consistently, with even the gloomiest surveillance study now accepting that the country’s outbreak has peaked – mirroring the official numbers.
The milder nature of Omicron, coupled with sky-high immunity, mean the NHS never came under the levels of pressure that No 10’s experts feared would happen, with hospitalisations and deaths both now in freefall.
The Prime Minister yesterday dramatically declared the final domestic restrictions – including compulsory self-isolation for the infected – will be axed before the end of February, provided the “encouraging” trends in the data continue.
The announcement annoyed the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales – with Nicola Sturgeon’s administration calling it a publicity stunt to divert from the Partygate scandal that has left the PM fighting for his job.
The First Minister did this afternoon pledge to ditch face masks in Scotland’s classrooms from February 28th – keeping them in communal areas – but says she will wait for expert advice before following Boris’s lead on any other rules.
Professor Tim Spector, leader of the ZOE Covid study app at Kings College London, warned relaxing Covid curbs is a “political type of statement rather than a scientific one”. He said it was “totally the wrong” way to show Britain has beaten Covid, describing Mr. Johnson’s statement as irresponsible.
He noted that while Covid hospitalisations and deaths are down, the data from the ONS and the Zoe study show the U.K. is still at more than 200,000 cases a day “and we’re still close to where we were on January 1st and that peak we had”.
He added: “It’s definitely not over – your risk of getting it is huge – and to suddenly give the wrong message… by saying ‘We’re getting rid of all restrictions, if you’ve got an infection don’t bother isolating’, which is sort of implied but not said, that is totally wrong. So, other countries might be doing this, but they have a much stronger public health message and a much better-educated public about the pandemic which we lack here in this country.”
Which is a bit rude.
A YouGov poll suggests the majority of Britons are against the Prime Minister’s plans and believe infected Britons should be forced to isolate. Asking 4,451 Britons whether they think people should be legally required to self-isolate if they test positive for Covid, nearly half (48%) said the requirement should always be in place, while 27% said it should be legally required for the “next few months”. Depressingly, just 17% said people should not be ordered to stay at home when they test positive. The poor record of opinion polls and their well-documented biases do need to be kept in mind, however.
Stephen Griffin from the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds said: “In my view, the way in which this is being implemented is a profound mistake. Again. Literally blinding ourselves by removing testing and isolation robs us of the most fundamental means of controlling the spread of this virus.”
Yes Stephen, that’s the point – we’re no longer trying to ‘control’ the virus. A fool’s errand in any case.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said he is reserving judgement on whether the restrictions should be eased, but Shadow Health Minister Justin Madders said the party needs convincing the step is “a result of scientific advice and not based on protecting his political position”.
Conservative MPs, on the other hand, were very supportive. Former Minister Lord Frost said: “The PM’s plan to end all Covid restrictions a month early is the right thing to do and is extremely welcome. I hope the Government will also make clear we will not go down the road of coercive lockdowns ever again.”
Bob Seely said lockdown must never be deployed again: “I am glad to see the emphasis on learning to live with Covid. We now need a grown-up and sensible approach setting out how we will protect the vulnerable in future without the enormous cost of locking down the rest of society. We know Covid may return this autumn or winter, but it would be indefensible to lock down again.”
Steve Baker said: “I welcome this announcement but we are not out of the woods until the Public Health Act has been reformed, we have new rules for better modelling, competitive, multi-disciplinary expert advice and wellbeing-based cost-benefit analysis covering the costs of lockdowns and restrictions. There is much to do!”
The laws may be on the way out, but the guidance looks set to hang around for some time. The Prime Minister’s Press Secretary said businesses would be given a “wide range of guidance” on how to treat employees following the removal of the Covid self-isolation requirement.
Legal experts have warned that even without laws it is possible businesses could be taken to an employment tribunal if an outbreak in the workplace leads to serious illness or the death of a friend or relative of an employee.
Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she is urgently seeking clarity from the U.K. Government on the implications of the announcement for Scotland.
The Mail has put together this handy graphic on the costs of lockdown restrictions in the past two years.
The cries of impending doom are reminiscent of those heard ahead of Freedom Day last summer, and then again in December as Omnicold hit. On both occasions, of course, the predicted mega-wave of hospitalisations and deaths failed to materialise. Having failed to learn from that, many people it appears don’t want to go back to normal, preferring instead to live forever in a world where all your plans for the week can be extinguished because you tested positive for a certain kind of cold.
Worth reading in full.
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Trans women would be much more respected if they simply admitted the obvious: that they are men who want to be women or feel they are women and want to live as if they are women but aren’t actually women.
Sorry to harp on about this but “trans women” is a made up nonsense phrase invented by the enemy to attempt to normalise the lie/delusion that men can become women – and you yourself point out that the concept is a big lie. I think we should strenuously avoid using the phrase, and we should refuse to recognise it as a meaningful phrase in the English language so that whenever we are discussing this subject, the idea is not reinforced and cannot take hold.
Instead of ‘trans women’, how about ‘fake women’?
And then it’s very clear that ‘fake women are women’ doesn’t make sense.
Fake is preferable to trans. In some ways though I would prefer that the word “woman” doesn’t appear at all. But it’s tricky to come up with something pithy. Trans men actually makes more sense to me – men who think they can “transition” to being women.
Some people get mixed up about that. It wouldn’t surprise me if in polls, in the past at least, the question, to women might be something like, “Do you agree that trans women should be allowed to use women’s changing rooms?” and some women probably think ‘trans women’ are women who are ’transitioning to being men’, and they say they agree with that, not realising the reality of what it means.
I’m sure that this is true and I am also sure that this is very much part of the intention in corrupting the language – to confuse, to obfuscate, to present distortions as reality.
Yes, totally.
And have you noticed how all of the stories we ever read about around this trans nonsense are men pretending to be women? Across all scenarios, be it male convicts identifying as women so they can go to female prisons, men wanting to enter female sports events ( professional or amateur ), enter private spaces such as loos, have a melt down if they get referred to by the wrong pronouns, being caught abusing kids or with sex abuse material, inciting violence like that nutter who wanted to punch ‘TERFs’….
The list goes on and on, but seldom do i hear anything about FtM trans people being royal pains in the arse, wanting to infiltrate mens changing rooms, prisons and sports events etc.
One obvious reason is that there is now a huge loophole in the law and opportunity which predatory men and misogynists just cannot let go to waste. The biggest disappointment and betrayal of all though is that it’s oftentimes actual women who are enabling this madness!
Yes indeed
What on God’s f***in earth means “to live as if they are women”? Women don’t “live” differently from men because woman is a state and not an activity. To restate (or rather, requote) this: Men trying to fool others into believing they aren’t men are seeking and having a decidedly male experience no woman will ever share with them.
Indeed, and conversely the only experiences unique to women such as menstruation and childbirth, breastfeeding can never be experienced by men. I’ve never had the pleasure of debating with someone who thinks men can become women, and I am glad because I think I would just burst out laughing – the whole thing is so preposterous.
They could start with getting angry about things, but never actually telling their partner what the problem is, and then go on to be terrible at reverse parking.
A jog in the park on Sunday should never be taken this seriously, surely?
It sounds a bit like a pub quiz ….. meant to be a bit of fun and socialising over a drink or two – until the highly competitive “must win” team turns up!
You can have friendly and enjoyable competition without having a “must win at all costs” attitude.
I disagree. The most interesting aspect of sports and games at any level is the competitive aspect. Without that, for many of us, it becomes dull.
Fair play, I’m neither for or against it I just think trans poeple in professional sport is a major prohibitive to female athletes, not so much in park runs
It’s on Saturdays, but I take your point.
From the article:
In that picture above the article: Can you imagine trying to walk a dog (or a child) in that park at that time?
My brother’s just started wearing dresses and stillettos…I think he’s a transistor
A Spanish matador has declared that he is gay, and pansexual (which appears to mean bisexual – what else could it mean?), apparently the first matador to come out and be open about it.
Here’s how the BBC report it:
“Spain’s LGBT matador: ‘More will come out because of me'”
“Spain’s first openly LGBT matador believes more bullfighters will come out, after revealing he is pansexual.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68226508
He’s not “openly LGBT”. That’s typical BBC manipulative ridiculous use of language. He’s openly G and/or B, he’s not L or T.
Gay bullfighting! Does this mean he fights gay bulls? or is he gay and fights bulls? Wow, whatever next?
No, this obviously means he wants to be conquered by bulls. As profession, that’s probably pretty self-limiting. But why shouldn’t the bulls have some fun, too?
Parkrun… until today never heard of it.
Parkrun had been a huge success. Each year more people took part, and more Parkruns around the world started up. Its success was down to its simplicity. What could possibly go wrong?
Well men pretending to be women and claiming their records was happening which was blatantly unfair. Parkrun HQ were well aware of these individuals but didn’t want to act because they wanted to #bekind or something. So instead they decided on mass punishment wiping out 20 years hard earnt records and data without even a day’s consultation.
Effectively the CEO (Russ Jefferies) picked up the football and ran (pun intended) off, collecting his white feather on the way. He’s now tying himself in knots trying to explain his cowardice. An early favourite for cuck of the year?
The issue in a nutshell (from one of the linked-to articles):
the campaign group Fair Play For Women said: “Parkrun have been letting men hold female course records. Women complained saying it was unfair. Rather than resolve the issue Parkrun has removed everyone’s records from its website.”
In the light of this, Parkrun desiring to be less off-putting to newcomers simply means less off-putting to women who don’t stand a chance of ever holding a women’s record when men are allowed to compete in the women category. IOW, their team of international experts was specifically tasked with finding a legal way to discriminate against women and their ‘solution’ is obviously “complete the destruction of Parkrun by eliminating Parkrun for men as well”. As most people on this planet aren’t already involved with it, there’s obviously a huge potential for New Parkrun and people who liked Parktun are just yesterday’s ballast.
Typical woketurds in action: Destroy what they didn’t create because they’re jealous that someone else created something.
Ich bin der Geist, der stets verneint! Und das mit Recht; denn alles, was entsteht, Ist wert, daß es zugrundegeht; Drum besser wär’s, daß nichts entstünde.
to let Satan speak the words Goethe put in his mouth.
In every sport or situation where men who have decided they are now women have an unfair physical advantage over women, there is only one way that this absurdity can be stopped, and that is by the disadvantaged women refusing to participate. —–There can be no sport when 99% of the participants are not present. The disadvantaged might not want to abandon the sport that they have worked so hard in but their non participation will only be temporary as the authorities and body’s who have facilitated this situation will capitulate immediately——–I recall Serena Williams being asked on TV how she thought she would do against the men. “She replied “if I were to play Andy Murray I would lose 6-0 6-0. ——-This is simply the reality in physical sports where men are more powerful than women. That situation will NEVER change.
So-called American progressives like to fool themselves into believing that that’s just due to ‘discrimination’. Reality is such that I can hold woman who’s a head taller than me and at least 1½ my weight away from me with one hand and without serious effort. As fat ‘ladies’ oftentimes mistakenly believe they’re also strong and thus, like to get violent towards smaller man, I had the mispleasure to discover this on numerous occasions.
Just call them fat and you will have won the argument because they will start to cry.
That’s a tactic reserved for dealing with people they don’t really dare to tackle.
:->