♠ Posted by Emmanuel in
Europe,
Health
at 4/14/2020 07:36:00 PM
 |
| Meet that other Anglo-Saxon biggie causing unmitigated COVID-19 disaster, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. |
I will be upfront and say that I detest Boris Johnson at least as much as Donald Trump. He is much of the same ilk: a clownish, loud-mouthed, and obese isolationist. Johnson is the best-known proponent of that exercise in self-harm known as Brexit. Still, there may be some slight differences that are in no way substantive between these two big-bellied blond-haired buffoons. Johnson epitomizes the romanticized view of British exceptionalism, that somehow curtailing personal freedoms through, say, a lockdown, would violate some
fanciful, imaginary idea of Ye Olde England:
The Sun reported the prime minister’s remarks
rather differently: “Mr Johnson said he realised it went against what
he called ‘the inalienable free-born right of people born in England to
go to the pub’.” In this version, the freedom to go to the pub was
conferred by genetics and history, not on the “people of the United
Kingdom” or “the British people”, but on “people born in England”. It
does not apply to Scots, Welsh or Northern Irish people and certainly
not to the 9.4 million people living in the UK who were born abroad. It
is a particular Anglo-Saxon privilege.
And since we are in the terrain of the ludicrous, the Sun’s version
actually made more sense. There is, of course, no ancient and absolute
right to go to the pub – inns and public houses have been regulated in
England at least since the 15th century. But what Johnson was really
evoking was a very specific English sense of exceptionalism, a fantasy
of personal freedom as a marker of ethnic and national identity.
That exceptionalism is not, alas, mere rhetorical self-indulgence. It
helped to shape official policy towards the Covid-19 crisis. It lies
behind both the idea that there should be a distinctive British response
to this global challenge, and the assumption that there was something
peculiarly unnatural in expecting Brits to obey drastic restrictions.
Its legacy is the globally discredited policy of “herd immunity” and the late introduction, squandering Britain’s head start, of the lockdown.
What is the result of having this other joke of an Anglo-Saxon "leader", erm, "dealing" with Britain's COVID-19 response? Contrast the UK's slow-footed response with
neighboring Ireland's:
At the time of writing, 365 people have died in Ireland of Covid-19 and 11,329 have died in the UK.
Adjusted for population, there have been 7.4 deaths in Ireland for
every 100,000 people. In the UK, there have been 17 deaths per 100,000.
In other words, people are dying of coronavirus in the UK at more than
twice the rate they are dying in Ireland. Yet, despite Ireland being
your closest neighbour, this has barely been mentioned in the British
press...
We knew of the measures and plans the Irish government was putting in
place to protect us and we knew how far your government was slipping
behind. When our taoiseach was closing our schools and universities, your prime minister was still telling you to wash your hands. When our government cancelled St Patrick’s Day celebrations, yours allowed the Cheltenham Festival
to go ahead and, with it, a potentially massive multi-day
super-spreading event of over 250,000 people. The contrast was
disorientating.
Nor is it a case of apples and oranges comparing Ireland with the UK:
Comparisons between countries inevitably run into difficulties. Overall,
Ireland has a lower population density than the UK, which arguably
slowed transmission of the virus. However, a larger proportion of the
Irish population is centred around the capital city: 39% of us live in the Greater Dublin area,
whereas Greater London holds 16% of the population of England.
We’re a
highly connected population, concentrated to the east of the country,
all of which works against us in a pandemic. Given the ease of
transmission of the coronavirus within the family home, another factor becomes relevant: the average household
in Ireland is larger than that in the UK. Other comparators are more
grimly equivalent: both Ireland and the UK began the pandemic with
roughly equivalent levels of ICU beds, just over half the EU average.
There are consequences for electing "leaders" like Trump and Johnson,. People will needlessly die because of their buffoonery. What's more, people like the rotund Johnson strain health services while attempting to cope with the
consequences of their poor health. Unfortunately, just as nearly every other American is obese, the UK sits at the top of Western European obesity league tables at
28.7%.
