Lockdown, Social Distancing, and Patriotism

It feels as if some people need this underlining in the current circumstances.  Despite repeated warnings to avoid going out on unnecessary journeys, to stay at home, work from home if possible, and only go out for exercise and to avoid contact with people, at the weekend hundreds took to trails and drove to the coast.  The attitudes displayed in the face of a deadly pandemic were frankly disturbing to anyone with a knowledge of how illness spreads.  These people were risking their own and each other’s lives.  Some even expressed the view that they didn’t have the virus and so were fine.  My response to that is – How do you know?   There are asymptomatic patients out there – we know that.  This virus is a symptomless spreader – you would be infectious without knowing.  Such cavalier attitudes are unfortunately common.  The rejection of expert advice – more so.  A few years ago Michael Gove publicly stated that the people had ‘had enough of experts’.  Since that expression it has often felt that anyone expressing a nuanced or contrary opinion can be dismissed in the same way.  And because of this anti-intellectualism, now, people who otherwise would not have been infected will be.  Some may die.  There are actual human lives at stake here.
It feels necessary to put this in a paradigm people might understand.  A patriot is someone who wants their country to do well.  This doesn’t equate to a belief in national superiority, or racial superiority.  It is an expression of the desire for your country to do well.  Ignoring government advice and going about activities that you want to do which contravene it, in a time of a national epidemic – is not a patriotic act.  You are putting the lives of British people – of all colours, all creeds, all religions, all social classes, all faiths, all genders – at risk.  If that means nothing to you – think of the healthcare workers who could become part of the chain of infection which you may or may not be part of.  The doctors, nurses, radiographers, consultants, paramedics, healthcare assistants.  Their lives are at stake too.  If you continue to defy this, regardless of the risks to yourself and your family – you are not a patriot.  If your belief that stopping these things is against the British spirit – you need to read some history.  British history.  If you keep doing those things be assured you are not helping.
If you panic buy supplies you don’t need – when you’ve already got enough at home for weeks – you’re not a patriot.
If you empty supermarket shelves rather than buying just what you need to survive – you’re not a patriot.
If you gather with your friends outside in groups five or ten or fifteen – you’re not a patriot.
If you defy advice to keep your distance from others and crowd your way in to get into places you need or don’t need to go – you’re not a patriot.
If you are one of those who defy this for the sake of it – you’re not a patriot.
If you are one of those people who took a trip with your family to the coast and crowded the beaches and seafronts with others and are now complaining about tighter restrictions that are now in force – you’re not a patriot.
You are putting scores of lives at risk.
If that doesn’t get through to you think about it this way – imagine you are an asymptomatic carrier – or a mild case – and you see fit to go out.  You stand too close to someone in the supermarket – you haven’t washed your hands because they look clean to you.  You transfer the virus to the person next to you.  They transfer it to their partner at home – a doctor.  Days later the doctor develops symptoms and has to isolate.  And because of that absence – there just aren’t enough staff to carry out all the treatments needed – and your own mother or grandmother – who contracted it through no fault of their own – who isn’t asymptomatic – dies.  The people around you when you go out have families, friends, co-workers, all of whom care about them just us much as you care about you and your own.  Not keeping to these restrictions is putting lives at risk.  If you care about your own family, if you care about this country – follow the protocols – stay at home except for work that isn’t closed down, minimal trips out for supplies, exercise, and medicines, wash your hands regularly.  If you call yourself a patriot this is your duty to your country right now.

(If it helps – just imagine the above being read to you in the voice of Winston Churchill, Clement Atlee, etc as appropriate to your political affiliation and auditory preferences).