Five Years On - the stupidity continues

Five years ago this week, the UK was closed because of pandemic fear, fuelled by a hysterical media, inflamed by dodgy data from an “expert” at Imperial College and not helped by pathetic politicians who lacked critical thinking skills. As we discovered later, the politicians knew the actual danger to health was close to zero for anyone under 80 years of age, and so they partied, socialised and had affairs regardless, while continuing lockdowns and furlough policies which polled as popular.

But not the just in the UK. Much of the world went mad, the WEF became the global arbiters of acceptable behaviour and businesses were shuttered, flights, borders, education, theatres, hospitality and health services were closed. Worse, familes were seperated by law, social distancing was enforced, and funerals were observed without the comfort of loved ones.

There are various investigations and public enquiries in the UK to “what happened?” but it’s pretty easy to summarise: It was an emerging problem that almost immediately turned into a dystopian life-changing and utter disaster for young people. It created farcical irrational policies [“Stay Indoors!”] that were doubled down again and again over two years. The UK was not alone in fucking it up. Still, it was world-leading in airing sanctimonious, self-serving, web-surfing suburbanites with gold-plated pensions pontificating that we should have locked down sooner, harder, longer. We destroyed the last vestiges of social capital in the UK and banged pans in the street insensibly while merrily damaging the mental health of so many young people.

Today, the impact of poor public policy, naive corporate leadership and the failure of the state to protect its citizens is still profoundly felt. I know some people “had a good pandemic,” whatever the fuck that means, and it has spawned a whole cult of WFH remote-obsessed isolationists, backed by academic research, that shows we have never been happier or more productive than while being apart.

Hopefully, future generations will come to look back and properly understand the utter levels of stupidity inherent in enforced “lockdowns” pursued, promulgated, and bizarrely, it seems (still) supported by millions.

#fiveyears #COVID19 #lockdowns #tragedy #neveragain