#Coronavirus: We all need protection and assurances will not suffice

Everyone’s a suspect viral host

The clamour to open up our country is beginning to sound shrill, for a people who have been in quarantine for 8 weeks as business, the world and life as we know it shut down, we have with patience and equanimity borne the strains, the pain, and the hardships with renowned British stoicism.

Yet, we must not be oblivious of the new reality, the reason we are in this situation is that we have to suspect everyone has the Coronavirus and so the ability to infect anyone they come in contact with. We also can be asymptomatic vectors of the virus or vulnerable to contracting it.

That is why we have the social distancing, but the 2-metre rule is at standstill, when you are moving, the distance needs to increase, people walking need to be about 4 metres apart to be out of the draft or slipstream of the person ahead. If cycling, that distance probably must increase to around 20 metres. The rule of thumb does not account for practical considerations.

Cover and test

Then, the use of face coverings, masks and respirators amid great demand and short supply. I hope to take delivery of some face coverings, but we must not be lured into a false sense of security, the threat is around us, unseen and cannot be warded off except by almost absolute sequestration with no contact with outsiders. We cannot maintain that for long.

The next line of protection or rather assessment is testing, identification, contact tracing, isolation, and treatment if required. The testing regime is a shamble, we cannot even be sure of the numbers bandied around by the government. The antibodies test is for now, for curiosity purposes as no one knows if the presence of antibodies confers immunity and if it does, for how long. There is still much to do.

Protect the teachers first

The quest to get the schools open by the 1^st of June in England is fraught with uncertainties and serious concerns. Whilst children might not be vulnerable to that much to the virus, there are indications that those who succumb to it present other symptoms than the known pulmonary issues observed in adults.

Otherwise, they might be asymptomatic, yet dangerous vectors of the Coronavirus to their teachers, parents, and guardians alike. It means adequate provision should be made for teaching and auxiliary staff in schools, probably PPE at the minimum, which might seem excessive, but not beyond the pale.

We must not be cajoled into making additional martyrs and heroes of the teachers after how the Coronavirus cut down the lives of frontline staff in the NHS, in care homes and transport services. These people were exposed to the public without adequate protection and the so-called heroes are dead and buried without ceremony.

Action, not assurances required

To add teachers to the mix only on the strength of government assurances without requisite protection would be murderous at best. We, as a people have sacrificed enough in life and livelihood, that the government now needs to shape up and actively work to prevent avoidable deaths.

Where employers are insistent to the detriment of employee health and safety, it is not enough to offer platitudes of reasonableness, there should be laws to directly protect an employee without running through bureaucratic hoops.

I am afraid, the UK government is still failing to distinguish itself in tackling this virus. Bullshit and bluster do not cut it, neither does propaganda or spin, people need to know they are safe, they will not be led to the slaughter for a cause the government has failed to persuade us of.

Maybe, the Houses of Parliament should fully resume, let the leaders lead by example and maybe, just maybe, we might all by appearance and confirmation come out of our foxholes and play the game they want us to play.

Iraq is far away from a Gettysburg Address

The address of great import

Four months after a battle in which 7,500 soldiers perished, an afternoon was chosen for the dedication of the soldiers’ cemetery.

The program, elaborate as it was included an oration that last two hours after which the president was to give dedicatory remarks.

In 10 sentences of 272 words, his words were few but its message was loud and clear, if not laden with meaning beyond the reading of the message.

Those remarks are now referred to as the Gettysburg Address and it ended with the following words …

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” – Abraham Lincoln

Knowing the cause

From these closing remarks, Abraham Lincoln drew some specific inferences that matter in terms of history, occasion, politics, governance, freedom, liberty and civic duty.

They matter in that they establish in clarity the context in which our democracies must operate and how those who exercise authority should defer to the magnitude of their responsibility.

First, that we should recognise those that went before us in creating the society in which we now live and engage in fervent promotion of those values they espoused for the future in which we now live.

Second, that the cause of freedom for which life has been lost must never be derogated to goals that deprive us of those hard-earned liberties.

Third, that the things that make us united and the things that underpin our moral tenets offer opportunities of greater freedom.

And lastly, these are the things that give meaning to our democracy.

Not ready for a Gettysburg address

When I review these inferences, it begins to make sense why Iraq after four months of elections a leader has not emerged for the government for the people.

The country is in so much tumult, people are still dying that the “cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion” cannot materialise for adequate reflection.

Whilst we are still counting the dead, one cannot get to the point where “these dead shall not have died in vain”.

The nation of Iraq is an amalgam of disparate tribal and religious entities in conflict and far from agreement, the expected “new birth of freedom” looks patently stillborn.

So, even though the people have spoken, they have not yet been heard such that “that government of the people, by the people, for the people” has not taken root to allow for it to endure.

However, it is the earnest desire of many, especially now, the people of Iraq to see that their dreams and desires for peace, freedom, liberty, justice and good governance does “not perish from the earth”.

Looking for a Gettysburg moment

Whilst Iraq has exceeded in numbers the count of the dead and injured in battle as compared Gettysburg, they are far from a Gettysburg moment.

The closing remarks of the orator (Edward Everett) clearly indicate that Iraq is seriously unfinished business in need of a greater appreciation of what has past, what is now and where we are headed for the future.

“But they, I am sure, will join us in saying, as we bid farewell to the dust of these martyr-heroes, that where so ever throughout the civilized world the accounts of this great warfare are read, and down to the latest period of recorded time, in the glorious annals of our common country, there will be no brighter page than that which relates the Battles of Gettysburg”

The battles of Iraq for now have no particular end in sight; tectonic plates of opinion and process need to shift for that sight to be acquired.

References

Powerpoints on the Gettysburg Address