Read on Twitter
THREAD:
1. What we are now seeing from this govt is another concerted attempt to deflect responsibility for the UK’s disastrous Covid death rate - away from themselves - and onto the public.
Govt urges police to enforce masks in supermarkets. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/11/police-in-england-say-they-wont-enforce-masks-in-supermarkets?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
1. What we are now seeing from this govt is another concerted attempt to deflect responsibility for the UK’s disastrous Covid death rate - away from themselves - and onto the public.
Govt urges police to enforce masks in supermarkets. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/11/police-in-england-say-they-wont-enforce-masks-in-supermarkets?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
2. As the thread below explains, public adherence to most Covid regulations has been high. If you want to reduce contact Govt should support more people to stay home. They should also pay people enough to self isolate when necessary.This they have not done https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1348680945625346054.html
3. As this @BMJ article articulates: “People get infected because they get exposed. And they are more likely to be exposed if they are structurally more vulnerable: living in crowded housing, not able to work from home, limited to public transport.” https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/07/pandemic-fatigue-how-adherence-to-covid-19-regulations-has-been-misrepresented-and-why-it-matters/
4. Clearly it’s not just govt incompetence at work here. Far from it. Instead we see a pattern where the very ideological basis of the Conservative Party has made a terrible pandemic worse and contributed to one of the worst outbreaks in the world
5. As the @BMJ article above states: “Data from the first “lockdown” showing the most deprived were six times more likely to leave home and three times less likely to self-isolate, but that they had the same motivation as the most affluent to do so.”
6. Therefore it is the structural factors such as over crowded housing, precarious employment, combined with systemic undermining of rights at work and trade union representation that has amplified this crisis.
7. It’s all here in black and white in Public Health England’s research into Covid disparities
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/908434/Disparities_in_the_risk_and_outcomes_of_COVID_August_2020_update.pdf
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/908434/Disparities_in_the_risk_and_outcomes_of_COVID_August_2020_update.pdf
8. If you’re black, Asian or economically disadvantaged (of which the former are over represented because of structural racism) you’re more prone to infection and death from Covid.
9. So let’s not let this Govt off the hook by blaming their incompetence alone or succumb to their attempts to blame the public. This mess is is their own making and one that’s been in the making for the past 40 years.
10. The next @UKLabour Govt must adopt transformative policies that do more than tread water for five years. They must radically reshape our environment, democracy and our economy - putting power into local communities and in our work places.
