It suits ministers to point the finger at ordinary people when the problem is their own failure to put proper measures in place
At last, it seems we may be starting to turn a corner, as infections and hospitalisations begin to wane. But you know you are in a mess when you take comfort in the fact that we have “only” 20,000 or so new cases a day, when there are more Covid patients in hospital than during the April peak, and when many hundreds of people are still dying every day.
So why are we in such a mess? Well certainly the new variant makes things worse, but that isn’t the whole story. As many people point out from their own experience, even though the situation is worse, we don’t seem to be doing as much to limit spread as during the first lockdown. We see more people out and about and the roads seem far busier. Personal experience is backed up by data: footfall in shops fell to less than 20% of regular activity last March, and now it is around 35%; the number of cars on the road went down to approximately 30% of normal levels in the first lockdown and is currently hovering around or above 50%.
