As a cancer patient I’m interested/perplexed/disturbed by the Covid-era ‘Protect the NHS’ slogan in the UK. It suggests that we as individuals need to protect a state service by not getting sick, not that the state needs to provide a service capable to withstand a health crisis

I understand in practical terms the NHS is literally on the verge of collapse & that we should all therefore strain every sinew not to get sick but on an abstract level, the idea of ‘protecting the NHS’ says something about the state-individual relationship that seems disturbing

Also, as a cancer patient, I can’t help needing certain essential health services I’m not getting right now and I don’t love the individual responsibility discourse - this is a systemic failure