[Article/Guancha.com Wang Shichun] Coronavirus mutation, many countries grounded to the United Kingdom, logistics stagnation, London entering the fourth level of “lockdown” control, a large number of people flee… A series of “thrilling news” about the epidemic in Britain have made people pay attention to the future of the country again.
However, the British at the center of the storm seem to be a little numb.
CNN London correspondent wrote in an op-ed on the 22nd about the mentality of the British under the new round of lockdown: the third round of lockdown “the atmosphere is a little desperate”.
The author said that now everyone in London is wearing masks, the shelves of the store are empty, there is a long queue outside the supermarket, and many businesses are “opening headwind” under the lockdown.
People do not know what the British government is doing, no experts can give clear means of fighting the epidemic, and no one knows when the epidemic will end.
CNN published the column “When the world leaves you – views from London” by Nick Payton Walsh, the London correspondent of the network, on December 22, about the mentality of London residents after the third round of lockdown.
The following is an excerpt translation of the article:
The winter solstice is over, and the day will get longer and longer from today (22nd), but the British do not expect this change.
In the UK, we had anticipated chaos by the end of 2020, but at least hope the chaos would be our own – as the UK begins a new relationship with the EU and new trade rules will take effect, and the UK will have chaos at the end of the Brexit transition period due to populist gambling.
But instead, chaos from nature, the pandemic has brought fears, and isolated Britain from the rest of the world at such a speed.
Those countries that the British government once advised us not to go to now say that Britain is not welcome.
Without waiting for the Brexit drama to be staged, the transport trucks have already been long in front of the Dover Strait.
And the government’s slogan “Don’t panic” has now become the loudest alarm bell, resulting in empty store shelves and long lines outside supermarkets.
Every time Britain “lockdown” has a different feeling. The first lockdown gave central London a ghostly surreal new glow to the sound of sirens. The second lockdown brought few people’s attention to it, because companies struggled to explain why they could continue to operate during the lockdown.
And the third lockdown, so far, is a little desperate. Masks are more common outdoors, and we have no idea when the epidemic and lockdown will end.
On the south coast of London, it was crowded two weeks ago, and now only people are left to run alone. Still, on the first day of the lockdown known as the “Tier 4” level, I ran past a booth that still sells spiced cider.
No matter what you define, you can still continue to operate (under the lockdown).
In the UK, it is no longer a strange word of conspiracy theorists to think that the British government does not know what it is doing, but an evidence-based assessment.
The Johnson administration has faced decision-making again and again, and they have taken a new approach. This method will be criticized as illogical or risky, and even eye-catching tabloids will criticize him. Then the Johnson administration usually vetoes or reverses this decision at the last minute.
Johnson initially underplayed the coronavirus, then took action to suppress the epidemic and test it. Then he was sent to the hospital for the novel coronavirus, and obtained sympathy-based poll numbers because of contracting the novel coronavirus.
After that, Johnson did not screen and track the virus, or even did not carry out enough tests, just saying that the epidemic would “disappear” by Christmas.
Then Johnson dragged the whole country into a lockdown he said earlier was “devastating and unnecessary”, and then he finally cancelled Christmas – he said a few days ago that only inhumans would cancel Christmas.
The Downing Street press conference was filled with uncertainty and clichés. Burntled scientific advisers seem to be trying to keep up with nature, and human beings have been suffering from the epidemic for a whole year.
The scientists’ advice seems to be only selectively adopted by a battered prime minister whose hair is getting worse and more chaotic and unable to keep up with the chaos he leads.
The number of daily cases of COVID-19 in the UK has become alarmingly large.
But the pandemic means that almost every Brit knows the people it killed—or friends caught in the wave of coronavirus, or suddenly discovering that the coronavirus pandemic is much more prevalent in their neighborhood than they thought.
When we visited Blackburn Hospital in London last October, I am impressed by the situation in the ICU ward. One third of the 21 patients in the hospital died the weekend before our arrival.
One of the patients we interviewed later died. He seemed to improve in his condition at that time.
In most families or families, occasionally people who do not “trust it” disagree with the lockdown. Or those who think that treatment costs worse than disease.
After the “lockdown” order was issued on Saturday, the best response was to squeeze into the last few trains from London to the field, as we saw inexplicably this weekend.
We seem to be desperate to meet our own selfish and urgent personal needs, convinced that these indifferent actions can prevent the virus from invading our private world.
British shelves are empty
A few months ago, a friend working in the British government joked to me, “If only Britain could be ahead of one thing.”
At one point we wanted the UK to be ahead in vaccines – we hoped that Pfizer Biotechnology’s vaccines would be approved and launched by the UK government in the first place, and if the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines were also approved, we might be able to launch millions of vaccines to the world.
But now we are worried that the most important export of the UK may be a mutant COVID-19 that exacerbates the severity of the epidemic.
But by the end of 2020, Boris Johnson did not have much political chips left. Johnson’s warning was not taken seriously.
On the contrary, the whole world takes Britain seriously, because this is the first time that Britain is no longer divided or uncertain, and even Johnson is taking it seriously.
However, this new and clear reality has not brought us any certainty: we are facing fermenting panic, the current blockade, and not knowing when these days of longer than daylight will end.
