Below is the text of my speech to Women At the Forefront – Resisting the Tory Offensive @Arise Festival 2022 on 5 July 2022. The video of the meeting can be found here
Thanks to Arise for holding their festival online and not falling for the government’s gaslighting and accepting the normalisation of Covid. Sadly, far too many labour movement organisations are going along with it, holding in-person conferences and meetings without social distancing or facilities for online participation by those not just at high risk of catching Covid but also carers, those with disabilities and those who have to be at work. For some of us, online meetings have been one of the rare positives which have come out of the past two and a half years. Let’s make sure we keep them!
Anyway, thanks Arise for recognising that the PANDEMIC IS NOT OVER. Indeed, we are now in a rising fifth wave of this deadly, debilitating virus. The government has tried to get rid of monitoring programmes, and the ONS data we are getting is a week out of date, but even so we know that nearly 2 million people had Covid last week, 1 in 30 people in England, 1 in 18 in Scotland. A rise of 30% on the previous week. Nearly 10,000 people are in hospital with Covid.
The idea that we can live with Covid is absurd. Covid is not flu. It is not a cold. Omicron, and now its variants BA4/5, is highly contagious and even in its mildest form can lead to long term illness and incapacity. Reinfections are now becoming commonplace as the virus breaks through antibody and vaccine protections. And the more virus there is in the population the more likely it is to mutate. And there are no guarantees that the next mutations won’t be more deadly.
Letting it rip, as this government is doing, isn’t just making people sick – and far more people than needs be – and increasing poverty and hardship for those in precarious jobs with no sick pay, but it is causing untold damage to society, to the economy, to the NHS, to all our public services.
We are all experiencing the disruption unplanned absences and shortages are causing in every aspect of our lives, from sudden cancellations to airport chaos. We are told that 5 million people having gone missing from the workforce. What we’re not told is how that 5 million breaks down into those who have died from Covid, those who have long covid and can no longer work – or are having to care for relatives with it, those who have mental health issues following the stress of the pandemic and lockdowns or the sudden loss of family members and close friends, let alone those who have been forced out of the UK by Brexit and the continuing hostile environment.
But the government has washed its hands of all this. It has moved on.
Just as it failed to plan for the Covid pandemic, or how it was going to end it – you can’t turn a society off and then on again like a computer – it has no plans for covid variants, new pathogens or the future pandemics which are almost inevitable due to climate change. Indeed, it’s only plan seems to be to find ways for the workers to pay for the pandemic.
Particularly want to talk about one section of population government has most callously washed its hands off – and that is those of us who are classified as at the highest risk if we catch Covid.
When I say this, I know conjures up an image of an older person, probably in a wheelchair.
Yes, older people are at risk, especially if they have other illnesses – and because women live longer, we are going to be a higher proportion of those who are at risk because of age.
But the over 4 million people who are classified as ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ come from all age groups and are not necessarily those with a disability. I’m at extremely high risk because I am on immuno-suppressant medication – medication which is given to thousands from every age group who have some form of inflammatory disease in order that we can live active lives. Many people with asthma and respiratory problems (an increasing number because of poor air quality in the big cities), are at high risk. So are those like my young neighbour who’s a teacher and has sickle cell, those with HIV or diabetes, and those receiving cancer treatments such as chemo and radiotherapy – an increasing number as the NHS tries to play catchup.
At the beginning of the pandemic, we were told to shield. For some people that meant living in one room – solitary confinement within their family home. But it also meant care packages and various forms of state support, and a legal right not to go to work. Now the guidance for people whose immune system means they are at higher risk is
We recommend that you avoid meeting with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
If you have visitors to your home, ventilate your home by opening windows and doors to let fresh air in and consider asking visitors to exercise precautionary behaviours such as keeping their distance. Tests are no longer free for the general public, but you can ask visitors to take a rapid lateral flow test before visiting if you wish. You might also consider asking them to wear a face covering and want to wear a face covering yourself.
If it feels right for you, work from home if you can. If you cannot work from home, speak to your employer about what arrangements they can make to reduce your risk.
When out and about, keep social distancing if that feels right for you, and consider reducing the time you spend in enclosed crowded spaces.
Consider continuing to wear a face covering in crowded public spaces.
In other words, you’re on your own. Don’t go out. Don’t socialise. But do risk your life going into an unsafe workplace because you have no choice if you are going to earn an income to feed yourself and your family.
Your visitors will have to pay for their tests. There’s no mention of safer FF2/3 masks which offer you some protection, or of HEPA air filters to improve your ventilation. I live on a busy main road. If I open windows, it’s not fresh air that comes in – it’s every pollutant going.
Government guidance has no legal standing. Employers can make you go in to work. Unscrupulous employers like Jacob Rees Mogg who demands civil servants are at their desks……
The government has abandoned us. And so has the rest of society. We are invisible. Locked away and excluded from society like Victorian consumptives.
If we are all ever to live normal lives again, then we have to resist Tory normalisation of an abnormal situation.
Our demands are simple. They are not restrictive. They are basic public health measures to protect us and reduce community transmission.
Masks in public places, free tests, contact tracing, social distancing, decent sick pay, covid safe workplaces, enforceable air quality standards, long covid to be classified as a disability, autumn booster vaccinations for all, funding for research, monitoring and the now urgent next generation of vaccines, and for this disgraceful government to support patent waivers so that we can vaccine the world.
And don’t forget to get all your jabs, including flu.
We are approaching a staggering and tragic landmark – 200,000 deaths in the UK. 200,000 avoidable deaths, 200,000 social murders. We must not forgive, and we must not forget. And we must not let this corrupt and callous government get away with pretending that the covid pandemic is over. However much we may all wish it away, it is still with us, and it is still killing people.
Joan Twelves 