Andy Richardson: 'Things are about to get worse'
We can look to our friends in New Zealand to be reminded of the risks of Covid-19.
Having had the virus under control – or, more accurately, eliminated – with no new cases for more than 100 days, Auckland is now in lockdown. A mini spike of more than a dozen cases led Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern to introduce tough restrictions.
The island nation has fared better than anyone else on the planet by taking pre-emptive measures. The message is clear: complacency is the biggest killer.
Finally, Boris Johnson seems to be catching on. Or is he?
While on the one hand, he has introduced new restrictions on those travelling to and from France, on the other he has eased some restrictions, with theatres and sports arenas allowed to reopen.
On the one hand, there are tough fines for rule-breakers who won’t wear masks, on the other he continues to make the worst possible mess of the botched track and trace scheme.
Inconsistency is the only consistent aspect of the Premiership – witness Rishi Sunak’s successful Eat Out To Help Out scheme throughout August, which delivered a shot in the arm to restaurants by allowing us to eat half price burgers. It was introduced at exactly the same time as Boris’s anti-obesity programme.
Unlike New Zealand, we are seeking to minimise Covid-19, rather than eliminate it. Test and trace has been disastrous, rather than world-beating, with an overcentralised, fragmented system that misses half of its target citizens.
Still, at least the nation is not obsessing about the speed at which water leaves a shower head – unlike President Donald Trump. He is proposing new regulations on showerheads because he finds it difficult to wash his ‘perfect’ hair on the occasions when it only trickles.
The idea has been called silly by industry executives who point out America has a horrifying Covid-19 death rate, an economy that’s crashing and a hugely important election ahead. Showerheads, they say, are not a priority.
The unemployment line is growing by the day in the UK as Covid-19 starts to bite. The worrying thing is this: we haven’t seen anything yet. It may not be until November until a clearer picture emerges, when furlough has finished and businesses have run out of cash. Though we’ve suffered the worst economic crash of any advanced nation on the planet, things are about to get worse.
