‘Freedom Day’ is coming – but the NHS app ‘pings’ will have us all locked up at home anyway
The IndependentThe best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Unions have warned that UK factories are on the verge of shutting due to staff shortages caused by pings, and big companies such as Nissan and Rolls Royce have said production could be affected – and as for the kids who are missing the end of term because the school received a ping on their behalf, well, when you’re seven years old there’s not much that matters more than Sports Day, or the end-of-year summer party. I know it’s small, in the grand scheme, but for them it’s huge and I just feel dreadful for them all.” In response, government ministers have discussed decreasing the sensitivity of the app – and health secretary Sajid Javid hinted that the test and trace isolation policy could be overhauled, as he stressed the need for a more “proportionate system”. You don’t do that by burning down the regulations.” And herin lies the real problem with “Freedom Day”: from Tuesday, we’ll be released into the wild, ready to live our lives the way we did before Covid – sort of. Except that we can’t, because we’re being urged to live in a state of cognitive dissonance – told to listen to the pings, but also forget all about the rising cases and warnings from experts who say dropping Covid restrictions in England could lead to a “significant third wave of hospitalisations and deaths”; to “doublethink” – in the way of Orwell’s 1984 – our way out of our concerns for the clinically vulnerable and to put our fears down; to stay at home and isolate, but also to go clubbing and shopping and to house parties.
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NHS workers may not have to self-isolate if pinged by Covid app amid fears of staffing crisis
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