Back before Lockdown became a thing in the UK, an idea was lightly posited by the Conservatives. It was sent out and given an airing but was quickly taken back when the general mood of the country declared it unfit to become a fact. The idea was herd immunity.
Herd immunity is where members of the ‘herd’ live life normally, go about their business and just catch whatever diseases happen to be about. In this way, it is thought, the ‘herd’ becomes immune by building up a natural resistance.
(At this point, can I just mention how stupid it is to use hand sanitiser every ten minutes? Unless you’re in a hospital, surrounded by infectious diseases, of course. As you wipe away the bad stuff on your hands, you are also wiping away the good stuff that is there specifically to fight the bad stuff. There’s no benefit in destroying natural antibodies with unnatural substances, when they are intent on helping us survive.)
The reason I’m talking about herd immunity is because when it was first suggested for the UK most of the idea came from Dominic Cummings, some sort of civil servant who controls our useless Prime Minister.
And, the reason I bring up Dominic Cummings is because today there was a bit of a furore over his actions back in April.
Things were so bad that the Prime Minister actually headed the press conference, something he doesn’t normally do because he’s useless at them.
After announcing possible changes to Lockdown, like the reopening of primary schools from June 1, and the presentation of a number of graphs showing a general downward trend in Covid-19 stats, he took questions from a couple of members of the public and then a few reporters.
The question the reporters wanted answered, as did most people in the UK, was, in a nutshell, why did Dominic Cummings feel it reasonable to drive from London to Durham (over 250 miles) with his symptomatic wife and young child while the rest of the population was being told to stay inside.
According to the Prime Minister, Cummings was acting instinctively, acting in a way that any good parent would in a similar situation. He was worried about his child and drove him to his parents’ place.
Interestingly, Cummings’ wife has a brother and sister in London. I guess they are estranged because it would seem to me they would have been a better option. Or maybe they hate kids. Also, interestingly, the company tasked with creating the Track and Trace app in the UK is based in Durham and run by another relative. Make of that what you will.
Mind you, Boris Johnson has a handful of kids (no-one really knows how many) so I’m surprised he didn’t offer to look after the child for his beloved chief advisor. Some friend.
Anyway, Twitter was, understandably very angry. I’m surprised my phone didn’t melt with the amount of bitter tweets arriving every nanosecond. Many, many people were saying how they’d missed funerals, not seen relatives, generally stayed inside like the government had suggested only to be told by the Prime Minister, that they were actually really bad parents because of it.
There’s also lots of people claiming he broke the law but the Lockdown has never been a ‘law’ per se. It’s government guidance and advice. However, what he did do was followed his own belief and faith in herd immunity.
Yes, Dominic Cummings bravely subjected his young child to a rigorous drive across the country in order to help his immunity. I can only imagine this was to prove his theory.
Maybe, then, we should all follow suit. By allowing it as reasonable behaviour, Boris Johnson has, basically, said we can all do the same thing.
So, the next time a policeman stops you from socialising, or sunbathing, or driving across the country, just say you’re following the Prime Minister’s advice and being a better parent. Just like Dom.
