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THE ALLEYNIAN 709
OPINION, INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
When Covid-19 touched down in the UK, millions of people had to face restrictions to their freedom on a scale never seen before. Jamie Chong (Year 12) examines the impact of this seismic change to our daily lives Lockdown vs
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Law is everything that the
The arrival of the pandemic induced culture shock in a society that had been brought up on the ideologies of Western liberty. Within a few days of the first lockdown, the Coronavirus Act 2020 passed into law, granting Boris Johnson’s government emergency powers on a scale last seen during the Second World War. This isn’t something that was agreed upon so easily in other countries, though. The US executive struggled (or refused) to pass any nationwide motions. In Japan, the government did not have the legal power to enforce a lockdown. Lockdowns are controversial, although not a completely new idea: in the Public Health Act 1984, Parliament introduced the ability to lock the country down. But is lockdown effective? The jury is out. Certainly, some countries which enforced strict lockdowns, such as New Zealand and Vietnam, reduced their infection rate very effectively. However, other countries didn’t have a lockdown, yet recovered quickly, as was the case in Singapore or Taiwan. Here in the UK, at the time of writing, we are in our third national lockdown, due to unrelenting spikes in infection. It seems clear that the first lockdown was necessary because we did not, unlike some countries, have a successful track and trace system or a mass-testing system ready to roll out when the virus hit. Unfortunately, since then, lockdown has been lifted with cases still in their hundreds, allowing the virus to continue to spread. The economic imperative overrode the health concerns. Asian countries, ravaged by the SARS outbreak two decades ago, understood the devastating effects that outbreaks could pose, and when Covid-19 was declared an emergency threat by the WHO, they were ready to do whatever was necessary to avoid the same levels of destruction. Perhaps this is a lesson the West has to learn from this outbreak.
government is able to enforce,
whereas guidance stretches beyond that
One of the most significant ways in which the government has attempted to retain some form of personal freedom is through the distinction between law and guidance. Law is everything that the government is able to enforce, whereas guidance stretches beyond that, laying out the best actions to take. This allows for some element of choice, whilst keeping the majority of the population safe. Ultimately, the guidance is what the government wants everyone to abide by. There is also leeway in most of the laws, such as leaving the house during lockdown. The law currently states that there has to be a ‘reasonable excuse’, allowing for case-by-case judgement rather than a strict rule on what is acceptable. Ultimately, the most important thing that has justified the temporary changes to our lives has been the ticking time bomb we have faced. Overwhelmed staff, fully occupied hospitals, and patients dying in the thousands every day were some of the glaring reasons that action needed to be taken. Our right to go high-street shopping certainly does not take priority over the lives of others. Therefore, in order to protect the right of others to health and life – fundamental human rights – we have to restrict ourselves and compromise on some things we take for granted. We give up today in order to have tomorrow.
liberty
ARTWORK — ALEXANDROS DOUROUKLAKIS (YEAR 13)
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