England no longer listens to Johnson’s lockdown orders

Photographer: Leon Neal / Getty Images

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

It’s a well-known message – and that may be why the public seems to be picking it up.

The data shows that Britons are much more active during the current third national lockdown than when the first emergency order to stay home was issued last spring. There is more traffic on the roads, more people on the train and more customers taking trips.

Government officials are too concerned ignore the rules as Prime Minister Boris Johnson is urging the public to try harder to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. With the National Health Service collapsing under the weight of Covid-19 patients, the UK already has the highest death toll in Europe with more than 87,000.

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While there are early signs that infection rates are starting to decline in places like London, and one in 20 has now been vaccinated, officials are warning that life is still not normal in the spring.

Images of a collapse of a state health care system would run the risk of doing even more massive damage to Johnson’s reputation, with public confidence in the government’s handling of the crisis having fallen seriously since its inception.

Crisis hospital

“We are now seeing cancer treatments being delayed, ambulances queuing and intensive care units moving into adjacent units,” Johnson said on Friday. “Now is not the time for the slightest relaxation of our national determination and our individual efforts.”

Last week, schools and businesses were closed and people were told to stay home to work if possible and avoid all travel unless essential.

Despite the crisis, traffic on British roads was still at 63% of its pre-pandemic level on January 11, government figures showed. That’s nearly double the rate at the start of the first lockdown in early April, when traffic fell to 35% of normal levels.

The use of public transport has also increased, with four times as many train passengers this week as at the start of the spring lockdown. In spite of the closure of non-essential stores, more people are shopping this time too, according to research firm Springboard.

Schools are only open to children of key workers, but they report a much higher turnout than in the spring. The latest government figures show that 14% of students were attending government-funded schools on January 11, compared to an overall level of just 2% in April.

Rule breakers

Given the major threat facing the country, why are people going out more often than when the pandemic first struck? Are more rules being broken, is the public just bored or are the rules themselves not strict enough?

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The picture is not unique to the UK Elsewhere in Europe, people are tired of wave after wave of restrictions. What makes England different is that coverage was even mixed from the start by a government that was reluctant to curtail people’s freedoms.

In Spain and Italy, which imposed harsh lockdowns from the start, entire families became accustomed to living with life-changing constraints. In Madrid and Milan everyone wears a mask outside and children have to wear it at school. In London, facial covering outdoors is still optional.

At the outset of the pandemic, England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warned that civilians would “understandably become fatigued” by the restrictions.

But in recent studies, people insist that they still follow the rules. Stephen Reicher, a UK government adviser and professor of social psychology at the University of St. Andrews, rejected the concept of lockdown “fatigue” as a way for authorities to put the blame on the public.

“Some of the rules and the messages around them could be the problem,” he wrote in the British Medical Journal. For example, during the summer pastors encouraged people to return to work and gave them discounts to eat in restaurants.

Some restrictions now seem to be more relaxed compared to the start of the first lockdown: Day care centers are open to all children, there are childcare and support bells, and people can meet with someone else to practice. Restaurants are also open – albeit for take out only.

Mixed messages

Susan Michie, professor of health psychology at University College London and government adviser, said “having more things open is a mixed message” and makes people question whether the country is “in crisis.”

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

But the increased activity could also be the result of a change in attitude towards the virus about 11 months after the pandemic. Robert Dingwall, a professor of sociology at Nottingham Trent University, said that while people were understandably scared of spring, it is now “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 the government press conferences that reported countless deaths.

Sacrifice

The Cabinet Office said the government had “given clear instructions to the public on what to do” to suppress the disease and that the “public has made enormous sacrifices to prevent our NHS from becoming overwhelmed and to save lives.”

But senior government ministers have confused the picture by offering different versions of the rules. Interior Minister Priti Patel said on Thursday that people should exercise alone, even though the rules allow activity with a friend.

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Johnson himself was criticized for cycling in East London’s Olympic Park, seven miles from his home in Westminster, despite guidelines saying people should stay in their local areas.

Ultimately, it all comes back to the prime minister. A libertarian at heart, he struggled from the start with the idea of ​​restricting freedoms. In December, he declared it would be “downright inhumane” to ban people from gathering at Christmas before being forced to do so, as the virus spiked days later.

Even now, Johnson can’t really bring himself to be definitive in his posts. In a Twitter video on Friday, he addressed people who plan to leave their homes to go out this weekend. “Please,” he said. “Really, think twice.”

– Assisted by Philip Brian Tabuas