I wanted to pick out some of the main points from previous research and look a little bit further into them and how they could be used within the project.
Herd Immunity
Sir Patrick Vallance, England’s chief scientific adviser, has defended the government’s approach to tackling the coronavirus, saying it could have the benefit of creating “herd immunity” across the population.
Critics including the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt have expressed concern about the decision to delay more drastic measures, such as school closures.
“What we don’t want is everybody to end up getting it in a short period of time so we swamp and overwhelm NHS services – that’s the flattening of the peak,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“Our aim is to try and reduce the peak, broaden the peak, not suppress it completely; also, because the vast majority of people get a mild illness, to build up some kind of herd immunity so more people are immune to this disease and we reduce the transmission, at the same time we protect those who are most vulnerable to it. Those are the key things we need to do.”
Hunt, who is now chair of the health select committee, has said he is concerned that the government is allowing schools to remain open and large gatherings to go on as normal.
He criticised the government for not going far enough and said the UK’s response made it an “outlier” when compared with other countries that have taken more robust measures.
As part of their response, the government initially looked at herd immunity as a way to allow the general public to become immune. They wanted to allow the virus to slowly pass through the population to and let infection and death rates to peak and trough in time.
The problem with the strategy, as outlined by countless scientists including W.H.O (The World Health Organisation) who advised against herd immunity, is that allowing the infection rates and death rates to ‘peak and trough’ would still be allowing thousands of people to die or catch the virus and develop life changing illnesses from it. Whilst it might allow the virus to pass quicker, it was always unlikely that deaths would be lower than other countries. The government put more emphasis on keeping the economy going and not changing peoples everyday lives too drastically and not enough emphasis on saving lives.
This criticism was backed up by Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief adviser who was claimed to have stated “herd immunity, protect the economy, and if that means some pensioners die, too bad.”
The comment not only shows the disregard for the publics health and death rates, but also just sums up the way many people felt about the idea of herd immunity as a whole. Herd immunity wasn’t just about
The idea of using the virus as a ‘good thing’ through its uses in the proposed plan for herd immunity in order to allow the virus to pass is something that would work well, using controversial comments and quotes as the marketing strategy for the virus to show the irony and stupidity of the initial plan by the government.
Death Rates
At a press conference on Covid-19 at Downing Street, the governments chief scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance said “If we can keep deaths below 20,000 we will have done very well in this epidemic.”
Whilst the comment was hinting towards keeping death rates as low as possible, the comment itself made the deaths seem like just another number and made it seem as if 20,000 was an ‘only’ comment which made it was argued that it seemed that the lives lost didn’t mean anything.
These comments about the death tolls show the lack of empathy in many cases for some of the people dying, or even people who recover but are left with long lasting effects.
In terms of the project, the comment itself and the way the government have in many cases underplayed the death tolls could be used as another ironic way to ‘market’ the virus, using targets of deaths of 20,000 etc.
Other Public Figures
Whilst the governments response has been one issue, other public figures have also added to the pressure. The likes of Donald Trump, or even famous social media influencers add to the problem by talking about the virus, or acting in a way which makes it seem like nothing to worry about.
Donald Trump
Over the past eight months, the president of the United States has lied about the dangers posed by the coronavirus and undermined efforts to contain it; he even admitted in an interview to purposefully misrepresenting the viral threat early in the pandemic. Trump has belittled masks and social-distancing requirements while encouraging people to protest against lockdown rules aimed at stopping disease transmission. His administration has undermined, suppressed and censored government scientists working to study the virus and reduce its harm. And his appointees have made political tools out of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), ordering the agencies to put out inaccurate information, issue ill-advised health guidance, and tout unproven and potentially harmful treatments for COVID-19.
Trump is an example of a public figure outside of the UK who has also ignored much of the advice from W.H.O and other scientists. Although he took ignoring them to an extreme, it shows how much damage can be done when a major figure within a country fails to take the virus seriously. It just illustrates how damaging it can be to not follow the advice of the scientists, and also how questionable comments and responses can make it look as though the virus isn’t being taken seriously.
Could be a useful tool to use alongside UK responses to show the way other leaders around the world have failed to respond – some of the many Trump comments could be used
Social Media Influencers
Whilst social media influencers clearlynhave nothing to do with the government, the lack of ban on travel allows for influencers to fly out to Dubai where there is no lockdown measures, meaning they can go out and party as if there was no pandemic.
Some of these exiled influencers are posting the same sunloungers-and-posh-dinners content as before – Dubai is not subject to lockdown measures like the UK. But now they are having to scramble to delete the hostile messages ensuing from their followers.
With “essential work trips” being one of very few consistently allowed justifications for travel as the UK’s rules have fluctuated over the last few months, some of the influencers in Dubai are trying to indicate that their 3,400-mile trip was a necessary part of their work – appearing in videos and paid-for endorsements.
As reaction built up on Wednesday, the Love Island star Anton Danyluk, who has been in Dubai since 10 December and has posted images of himself out for meals and smoking shisha in a pool, showed a video of his laptop with a view of the skyline behind it and the caption “love my office view”.
Meanwhile, The Only Way Is Essex star James Lock posted at least two images of his laptop, with unspecified graphs on screen, in his stories. On Wednesday morning he told his followers he and his girlfriend, Yazmin Oukhellou, were “working away, despite what you may think, we are still grafting”. He posted a video of himself sunbathing, with a drink but no laptop, an hour later.
Similarly to Donald Trump, although not a representation of the Uk’s Covid response, it does show another example of public figures within the UK with a large following and influence on youths breaking the rules and pertaining to this idea that `Covid is nothing to worry about, again not taking it seriously enough. This is something, alongside Donald Trump which could be used within the project to back up the critique.
Ben Jackson 