A survival guide to the government’s ‘living with Covid’ plan

Yesterday my aunt called from Canada. “I hear Covid is over in Britain! Congrats!”

It was said with no small amount of irony, a lot of sarcasm and deep resignation that Covid measures have become just another pawn in the political chess game. What can I say, it’s a family trait.

Since Boris Johnson announced the “living with Covid” plan this week, I have been inundated with friends and family asking how to do the right thing moving forward – how to avoid infection, how to make decisions about risk, how to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.

I’ve written before about how the government’s reliance on personal responsibility never ends well for the public’s health. I’ve written before about how we’re ending restrictions too soon. It seems our government is not so good at learning the lessons from history. And I’ve written about that, too.

So, in a twist that I’m sure everyone saw coming, we need a survival guide for the “living with Covid” plan. Here are my top tips.

Firstly, continue protecting yourself. While more official measures of pandemic protection are being abandoned in favour of personal responsibility, I echo the advice of the World Health Organization last week when I say, grab that personal responsibility with both (rigorously washed) hands and use it to put a mask on, preferably two metres away from others.

Wearing a mask, washing our hands and keeping our distance where possible continue to be the three biggest defences we have against the virus, and very little is lost if we continue to follow these measures. In the event that the pandemic is truly winding down, the worst-case scenario of personally choosing to carry on with these protections is one where you catch fewer colds, carry fewer germs and worry less about whether you’ve brushed your teeth that morning.

Secondly, continue protecting others. From today it will no longer be legally required to isolate if you have Covid-19, but you should. With free testing being discontinued, the only way to ensure you do not infect others with a potentially life-threatening and life-limiting disease is to stay at home when you are ill with known Covid-19 symptoms.

A fever, a cough and a loss of smell are all signs of infection, Covid-19 or otherwise, so respect the health of others and where possible stay home until you are well. I say this knowing that for some this will be impossible. The government’s decision to remove the legal requirement to isolate also does away with important lifelines like isolation payments and the requirement for workplaces to allow for employees to isolate without repercussion.

So, a word of ethical advice for employers everywhere – don’t be horrible. Do you really want an employee coming in, coughing on you, your staff and your merchandise? Is what you do so necessary that you’d rather a dog-sick employee working than be one person down for a few days? Get stuck in with protecting others by protecting your employees too. Give them the ability to protect themselves by staying home without a negative impact on their employment.

Thirdly, get vaccinated. The Covid vaccination programme is the only pandemic measure set to continue after 1 April. Take advantage of it. There is no wrong time to get your first, second or third dose of the vaccine. No judgement from those administering it.

If you have questions about the vaccine, ask a trusted healthcare professional to help you understand what risks are valid for you. Heck, ask me. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’m happy to dispel rumour in favour of scientific fact. Make an informed decision about vaccination. Protect yourself and those around you in this simple and free way.

Finally, lobby for global change. This might seem a bit left-field, but the pandemic will continue so long as health inequity exists across the world. With countries unable to vaccinate their populations the way the United Kingdom has been privileged to do so, the threat of the virus continues.

Again, as I’ve said before, the longer the virus is passed on, the longer it can infect people, the longer the opportunities for mutation continue. With each new strain comes the potential for an even deadlier version of Covid that could sweep across the globe at any time.

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Only by demanding equitable access to vaccines, only by supporting countries without the infrastructure to roll out “world-beating, world-leading” immunisation programmes, will we ever see the back of this pandemic. In the global economy in which we live, so long as Covid exists as a substantial threat in one country, it exists for all of us.

Until the day we can declare Covid a virus with minimal threat to our health, we will have to live with it. But living with it does not mean abandoning the protections that are known to keep us healthy and safe. Today, tomorrow and every day after that, I urge everyone to continue with the small, easy to carry out measures to control the spread of the virus.

Only by slowing and eventually halting the spread, will we be able to say we can live with Covid. For now, it seems we’ve come full circle to the beginning, and so I will close with the wish and warning that accompanied every email I sent at the start of this pandemic: stay well.

Dr Alexis Paton is a lecturer in social epidemiology and the sociology of health and co-director of the Centre for Health and Society at Aston University. She is also chair of the committee on ethical issues in medicine at the Royal College of Physicians and a trustee of the Institute of Medical Ethics