UK plays Russian roulette with Covid-19

So now I am doublejabbed, with two doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine coursing through my veins and ostensibly fully protected against the virus.

A pyrrhic victory really, when billions of people in the developing world do not have access to the vaccine and Boris Johnson’s government seems hell-bent on killing us all with its insane “herd immunity” strategy, which of course it forcefully denies.

Yes, it is the case that the UK government has presided over the lightning-speed development of a safe and effective vaccine, but it is also the case that it seems to have bet all the house money on the vaccine being the UK’s exit route out of the pandemic, rest of the world be damned.

Depending on the data you look at, it is estimated that about 60% of all UK adults have now had two doses of the vaccine, mainly in the over-40 and vulnerable groups.

This is an impressive rollout by any standard, and I have been astounded by the efficiency of the National Health Service (NHS) text prompting me to book an appointment, and the speed at which the vaccine is then administered.

But the government may be undoing all of this good work by pursuing a risky strategy of opening up that prioritises the economy, with the virus by no means out of circulation.

On July 19 the Johnson government, with the world watching aghast, “irreversibly” dropped all mitigation measures against the virus — including the wearing of masks and social distancing — amid the highest infection rate in the world.

Covid-19 cases have now come down somewhat to about 40,000 a day, but were approaching 50,000 a day for most of last week, with the UK alternating with Indonesia on a daily basis for highest global infection rates.

Unfortunately, hospitalisations have crept up to about 5,000 a day in the under40 age group as the virus seeks out the unvaccinated. Deaths are also creeping up.

There are now the ubiquitous media appeals from former anti-vaxxers, now very ill with coronavirus, beseeching people to take the vaccine.

The newspapers are also again full of anonymous blogs of NHS staff being totally overwhelmed.

This is why it is bittersweet to be able to have this vaccine. I have to protect myself and others against this bonkers health policy.

Vaccines have obviously weakened the link between catching the virus and death or hospitalisation, but I don’t think the UK government should be opening up to the extent it has.

Most Brits seem to agree, and from what I could see over the past week, the large majority of people are still wearing masks in shops and public transport.

Again, the public seems to be more in step with scientific evidence than the government is. In fact, in 2020 the majority of businesses went into a workfrom-home lockdown before the government officially issued the stay-at-home order.

At the moment many businesses are continuing to run remote teams in anticipation of another government U-turn and a lockdown in September.

This is especially likely with vaccine hesitancy among the young being more prevalent than first thought.

On the one hand the lockdowns are extremely psychologically and socially damaging, and I agree that we must learn to live with the virus.

But there is a sense of

IT SEEMS TO HAVE BET ALL THE HOUSE MONEY ON THE VACCINE BEING THE UK ’ S EXIT ROUTE OUT OF THE PANDEMIC

THE PUBLIC SEEMS TO BE MORE IN STEP WITH SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE THAN THE GOVERNMENT IS

unease and anger about the very obviously huge risk the government is taking in subjecting its citizens — and the rest of the world — to what 122 scientists in the Lancet called an “unethical” experiment.

There is a worry that vaccine-resistant strains of the virus will emerge in the UK at this time, and we already have 129,000 deaths — how many deaths will be deemed enough?

Dr Masie, a former senior editor of the Financial Mail, is chief strategist at IC Publications in London and a fellow of the Wits School of Governance.