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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What sensible person gives a flying f*** what unions and scientists think or say?
The former a bunch of left-wing woke layabouts and the latter under the thumb of the WEF and the obnoxious Klaus Swhwab.
Tell the lot of them to bugger off.
I am one who thinks ending the removal of restrictions is correct and I’m sure there are many scientists who agree, but will never have their voices heard because of MSM control. If people are sensible and restrict their activities when they have symptoms as they normally would with a bad cold or influenza then things should be fine. The unions want to support their members who have enjoyed having multiple excuses for not working when in many instances there is nothing wrong with them.
Can I suggest that more people do what I did – register to do the YouGov Daily questionnaire so that our voices can be heard. I did the poll referenced at the top and was horrified so many wanted isolation to continue forever. There is always a comments box at the end of the survey where you can write freehand, which I always do! There is then the chance to rate other people’s comments- I only did this once as I don’t have the stomach for it!
Tim Spector of the Zoe project is only worried about one thing and it’s losing the huge amounts of government grants he’s been getting running into millions of pounds. He doesn’t do irony by making statements about politics v science.
“So, other countries might be doing this, but they have a much stronger public health message and a much better-educated public”
Meanwhile in Germany the argument is “the Brits may be doing this, but they are totally different, more vaccinated etc.” Sound familiar?
YouGov poll! yeah right! Complete load of bollocks!! (legitimate word, not profanity). Everybody I know is sick of all this nonsense, even former lockdown lovers who I know have had enough of it!
IGNORE THE POLLS – they are fake.
Heaven alone knows where YouGov finds people who want top continue lockdown in such one-sided numbers – because that does not in any way reflect the conversations I have with my friends, family or peers.
I’m 58 years old, still never been questioned by opinion pollsters. Humm. Never done jury service. never been stopped by a TV crew in the street…
So, three-quarters of “those polled” want stupid restrictions to continue, and unions want to destroy the economy. Lazy sods wanting to be paid to stay home forever, and unions wanting a party to run the country which is even more socialist than Johnson?
Stockholm Syndrome is alive and well in charge of the sheeple.
Of course SAGE say it’s too soon, after all they’ve always been correct with their guesswork. The Unions don’t want normal service resuming – work at work and all teachers behaving less like the children they have frightened. Where they think their future cosy pensions will come from without a fully functioning society I have no idea.
Where on earth do they get these poll results? Everyone I know wants all measures to stop NOW!
After two years of relentless fear propaganda led by Boris Johnson , it is little wonder that a Prime Minister, who has not exactly covered himself in glory, is having difficulty getting the proposed easing of rules to stick. I fear that we may have created two nations, but not Disraeli’s version, actually it is three. The first closely resembles pre March 2020 normality, the second is a jobsworth’s paradise and the third is full of neurotic health obsessives who believe that the end of the world is nigh. We are in quite a fix. So what is to be done? Ideas on a postcard please.
Withdraw taxpayer funding from sectors two and three. Job done.
Those yougov polls are a propaganda fix!!
Polls are easily manipulated. Referenda even with oversight can be too but less easily and are the only way forward for democracies
Looks like most people are their own worst enemy. They look to the state to protect them instead of taking responsibility for their own health. Heaven help us if we ever get a genuine serious pandemic!
As soon as I saw the words ”Yougov poll” I stopped reading.
As a FOIA request discovered, the UK’s 150,953 deaths reported is highly misleading, with at least an order of magnitude fewer only having covid on the death certificate, and the large uncertainty of the ’28 days following a positive test’ meaning death could be from a myriad of other causes. The country comparisons also need levelling out to a per-capita number. [Note: In Uttar Pradesh in India, they deployed Ivermectin via a ‘Test & Treat’ programme, and with an ~6% vaccination rate, have declared the state covid-free.]
Also, the unions have to understand that (1) we can never be free of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and (2) ‘isolating’ is just the scary political term for being ‘off sick’, which is normal behaviour when ill, regardless of cause.
And it must be asked, why haven’t the unions jumped on the knowledge that there are safe and effective therapeutics, that work within 48 hours of first symptoms, and enable natural immunity to develop – a combination far far better and safer for their ‘members’ than the vaccines. It’s as if they want people to suffer.
The graphic tells us all the cost. HMG tell us the NPI”s were a great success and we had the greatest growth last year since 1941.
Somebody is clearly tell lies.
Wonder who??
You can have a Pol or you can have science. You can’t have both.
“Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance” – Plato
“The State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions; if they be willing faithfully to serve it – that satisfies. I advised you formerly to bear with men of different minds from yourself” – O. Cromwell
Wouldn’t it be nice if the Uk just followed the science rather than take advice from a biased group of people. We now know so much more about covid, the plandemic and the experimental biologicals that are offering not a soupçon of effectiveness. But hey, let’s just keep following bought scientists from bought institutions and let’s all lock ourselves in the closet at home forever.
any mention of the sudden advice from the scientist Harry (previously known as prince), for everyone to get a HIV test. Wow, didn’t see that coming. Remember the rumour that hiv was inserted into the fur in cleavage of the man made covid virus,when it was made at fort Derrick? Luc Montagnier, the Professor, expert in HIV, died two days ago. No longer around to discuss his thoughts…..so here we go folks. Remember PCR tests and the inventor of this test,Kary Mullins, who said PCR tests should not be used for viruses such as covid especially at high cycle threshold. Guess what? He died about a month before covid took over the world. I am certain these deaths are just coincidental, like all the adverse events and deaths post vaccinations.
Trade unions; simply another cohort of the enemy within. Perhaps we should also add the gullible to that group. Life comes with risks; they need to accept that and stop pandering to the aspiring fat controllers.
Unions have 2 default functions: getting more money for their members and getting their members to do less work; ideally both at the same time. It’s hardly a surprise that they are mainly in the public sector and that they are crying “the sky is falling”
Time to demand that the likes of Spector must declare their financial interests, and stop shelling out for opinion polls traders.
Endless holidays become rather addictive.
If this survey was a fair reflection of public opinion, it shows how effective the government’s scare tactics have been to scare the weak-minded into submission. Problem is, they will need to spend a shed load of money now on a counter narrative to get them to come out of hiding.
The government should have considered the likely outcomes of their actions from the start, but of course a long term strategy was outside their planning abilities. They are now in another hole of their own making. Ye sow, so shall ye reap.
The government don’t want the submissive to come out of hiding. The government depends on the submissive to keep the narrative going – the will of the people.
I don’t trust YouGov polls it tends to attract people from the left, you can see this from their comments.
I suspect if the Daily Sceptic did a poll, I suspect the results would be the polar opposite.
It’s no surprise the public sector want to carry on with lockdowns, restrictions etc, they will be on full pay regardless and have no danger of losing their jobs.
It would be interesting to see exactly how the questions were stated.
Also as it was Unison members questioned who are mainly public employees they will receive full pay if they are ‘off sick’ with a dodgy test.
I have banged on about the flamin’ tests or a long time – it is time stop them completely.
If some nutter is desperate to self test then let them pay for it.
You Gov question:
Would you rather self isolate forever, or be executed in five minutes time?
Love these poll results that take the responses of a few thousand of extrapolate out to tens of millions. Sooooo credible.
The polls are probably done in an office of 10 people – 1 person = 10%.
A teacher I know is gutted. She lives in an extended family unit. At Christmas, she told me she had worked out how to get six weeks off isolating on full pay, as each if her family members would test positive on lateral flow. I asked her didn’t her boss mind? oh no, she said, he’s in the same union and is really supportive of anyone isolating anytime, no questions asked.