We Have Always Been at War with Eastasia

 

“PM Heralds Vaccine Victory for Care Homes”, “Vaccine rollout to care homes complete”, “UK Breaks Vaccination Record with 600,000 Jabs in a Day”, “9M Jabs… On Our Way to a Great British Summer!” All front-page headlines from today's papers. All deservedly praising the amazing rate of vaccinations in the UK. But these papers are portraying this as a triumph for the government and for Johnson in particular. Yet this is not a triumph for the government, nor for Johnson, and we must not buy into the propaganda. Instead the success of the vaccine roll-out highlights just how badly Johnson and his government have fucked up at every step of this pandemic.

 

How, you ask? 

 

Simply this:

 

The vaccine roll-out is not being run by the government, but by the NHS. It's their long-standing organisational and logistical skills that are being used to get this vaccine out to so many people so quickly. The government has (at last) taken a hands-off approach and left the experts to get on with it. 

 

But why is this a fuck up?

This isn't a fuck up. The fuck up is that they didn't do this from the start! 

 

The vaccine roll-out shows us what could have been done if only the Prime Minister had listened to the experts and used existing systems and services rather than pretend that British Exceptionalism would protect us while seeing every crisis as an opportunity for his mates to make money. We have an excellent (if, like every other public service, underfunded) Contact Tracing system in the UK that handles communicable diseases, staffed by experienced people. But rather than use and expand that service the government decided to turn to a gamut of private companies to build a system from the ground up. When you look at the list of companies involved it becomes obvious why it's been so shit. 

 

But so what? Things are working now, why dwell on the past?

Well, because a year ago there were over 100,000 people alive who are now dead because of the government's incompetence in the face of this pandemic. 100,000 people who have died, often alone, without their loved ones. 100,000 people being mourned by friends and families, whose absence is felt in communities up and down our country. 100,000 gaping holes that will never be filled. 

 

100,000 people who didn't need to die, who probably had many more years left in them (about a decade according to this study). And yes, a lot were old, but that doesn't mean they would be dead regardless. The older you are the longer your life expectancy because, well, you've made it this far. And if you think that "we're all going to die anyway" is a valid argument then I will assume you don't bother seeing a doctor because, if we're all going to die anyway why prolong things? If you recognise the stupidity of that argument then congratulations. 

 

History is Being Rewritten Even as it's Being Made

So please don't let the success of the vaccination campaign obscure the massive and prolonged failures of our government. Don't let them get away with using this pandemic as an excuse to line their pockets, and those of their friends, while the people they claim to represent face financial and emotional ruin. Above all, don't forget to hold them to account. In our time of need they failed us. They continue to fail us. They were elected to lead and in our darkest hour they were derelict in their duties. We are so desperate for good news - and the vaccine rollout is undoubtedly good news - but without a proper plan to stop the spread of the disease vaccinations alone won't save us. And because of that we're still screwed.