[Text/ Observer Network Xiong Chaoran] After trying to achieve "Buddhist epidemic prevention" of herd immunity failed, British Prime Minister Johnson recently announced that it will fully unblock the England region on July 19, and directly "lying" it in the face of the fierce Delta mutant new coronavirus. On July 7 local time, Johnson continued to defend the unblocking plan in Parliament, saying that easing restrictions was a "balanced policy." As soon as the relevant policies of
were released, public opinion in the UK and even internationally was in an uproar. The British media Independent criticized Johnson for his "surrendering" but the BBC immediately jumped out to "scrub" him and "escort" his policies. Before
announced the unblocking, Johnson even called on people to "learn to coexist with the new crown virus." However, CNN found that a large number of British people were still anxious, depressed and even afraid of the unblocking and returning to their pre-epidemic living conditions.
A new survey research also shows that the proportion of British people who are looking forward to unblocking and returning to their usual life and British people who would rather stay at home is almost the same, both at 36%. Regarding the unblocking, the British government has not obtained an absolute public opinion basis. Screenshot of
CNN report
announced the unblocking, but some people are afraid to go out to work
CNN report said that the British government originally planned to fully lift the England region on June 21 and lift all legal restrictions on social interactions to usher in the so-called "Freedom Day". However, affected by the delta variant strain , the day was postponed to July 19.
According to Reuters , on July 5, Johnson announced at a press conference at the Prime Minister's residence that the British government is ready to lift a series of restrictions on the new crown. If the current epidemic trend remains unchanged, the England region will be fully lifted on July 19, and Scottish , Wales and Northern Ireland can enforce their respective public health regulations.
On July 5th local time, British Prime Minister Johnson announced that he would lift the lockdown of England. Photos Since the Pengpai Image
As early as May this year, when the UK began to lift one of the longest and most stringent lockdowns in stages, Kitty Grew has begun to try to conduct a "commuting drill". She is a project manager from the UK's National Health Service (NHS) who is responsible for the COVID-19 vaccination work in London.
Every night, 27-year-old Gru would ride his bicycle along the suburban alleys and towards the office in the city, trying to go further every day, but she was full of fear. Before the epidemic, she took the bus or subway to work. After the epidemic, she was used to staying at home and working, and she felt anxious and fearful as soon as she went out.
In Gru's psychological expectations, the date of returning to the office to work should be in August or September. Her last time she took the subway was in January 2020, when the subway carriage was covered with various slogans requiring passengers to wear masks and maintain social distance.
"Once the lockdown was unblocked, many of my friends said they couldn't wait to go to nightclubs, festival parties or go abroad, but I want to say, my goodness, just taking the bus to work makes me anxious."
"I can't imagine boarding a plane to another country, or even going to a club." Gru said she has been seeing a psychologist and studying how to solve the problems she is currently facing.
Waterloo Station in London, England under the epidemic. Photos from Pengpai Image
study shows that nearly 40% of British people would rather stay at home
Gru's situation is not an isolated case. CNN pointed out that since the UK began to relax some restrictions in mid-April this year, many people have happily returned to restaurants, salons and shops, but not everyone is happy to see the situation of public places reopening in full.
In March last year, the UK implemented its first lockdown, when Emma Kavanagh, a psychologist and writer, unfortunately contracted the new coronavirus, found herself staying at home and struggling with anxiety.
"I was hysterical at the time and felt that I couldn't survive under this pressure. I couldn't concentrate and was almost collapsed."Cavana recalled that period and gave a key advice to those who were worried that they would never be ready to return to the pre-pandemic situation: Give yourself a little more time.
But now, Johnson has announced a full unblocking. Some psychologists expect the high anxiety and depression people experienced during the lockdown will not disappear as restrictions are relaxed.
Newly appointed US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned that unprecedented stress and isolation from the pandemic could trigger a “social recession” that has a profound and lasting impact on people’s health, well-being and productivity. A national study by the British charity Mental Health Foundation (MHF) found that certain groups are particularly worrying, including young people, unemployed people, single parents, people with previous mental health problems and people with disabilities. The study said these people felt more painful during the pandemic than other British adults.
“It’s hard for me to imagine everything going back to what it used to be. "Amy Clement, a 26-year-old stage drama supervisor who lives in London, said that the past year has been accompanied by the British government's blockade, unblocking, reblocking and extended lockdowns, and she is anxious about the future and is not sure whether she is ready to return to work or go out with friends.
"It's a constant bubble of fear, fearing when we will unblock, or it can be regarded as a ticking time bomb." "It was not until after receiving psychotherapy and with the help and support of family and boyfriend that Clement slowly began to get rid of this panic.
But CNN reports pointed out that not every British person can get help like Clement. The British phobia charity Anxiety The latest survey conducted by UK shows that the proportion of people who are looking forward to unblocking and returning to their usual life and those who would rather stay at home is almost the same, at 36%.
CNN: Many British people are anxious because unblocking is coming
In this report article on CNN, they then interviewed and listed the psychological feelings of many British people. The keywords of the answers are still "anxiety", "depression", "lost", "fear", etc.
report pointed out that when weighing the risks of unblocking, many British people's anxiety is intensified, and this process has also brought new fear to others. And the legitimate researchers When you want to know whether one of the world's strictest lockdowns will trigger a mental health crisis, one thing can be clearly known from conversations with dozens of British people: many people are anxious about the arrival of a certain "restart".
Since British Prime Minister Johnson announced the decision to unblock on July 5 local time, many media have criticized him.
The British "Sky News Network" described the unblocking as a "big gamble" and pessimistically predicted that "in the two weeks before the full unblocking was implemented, the UK has inevitably fallen into continuous political debate on issues such as masks and working from home."
Sean O'Grady, deputy editor-in-chief of the British Independent O'Grady) published an article on commenting, sharply criticizing Johnson's decision to lift the lockdown was a "surrender" to the new coronavirus and he should not be forgiven.
. Just as many British media questioned the Johnson government's unlocking policy and even severely criticized it, another British media BBC published an article on the 5th to downplay the threat of the epidemic, intending to "escort" Johnson's unlocking policy.
BBC report screenshot
"The new coronavirus is no longer fatal", "The new coronavirus will never disappear", "whether it is vaccinated or not will be infected repeatedly", "The virus cannot be completely stopped from spreading", "The UK may be the first country to be unblocked in a severe epidemic"... In this article, BBC listed a large number of negative views on the UK's epidemic prevention and control, which is exactly the same as Johnson's "coexistence theory with the new coronavirus".
On July 7, local time, on the "Prime Minister's Q&A session" of the House of Commons that day, facing the many doubts about the unblocking by the British opposition Labor leader Keir Starmer (Keir Starmer) about the unblocking, Prime Minister Johnson was vague and continued to defend his government's plan, claiming that relaxing restrictions was a "balanced policy."
He said that due to the advancement of vaccination work, the link between infection, severe illness and death has been "cut off". Regarding the mask wearing part, Johnson said the government is cautiously shifting from legal mandatory directives to allowing people to take personal responsibility for their actions.
Previously, the new British Health Secretary Sajid Javid also defended Johnson's policy, but also had to admit that there was considerable uncertainty in this decision.
He predicts that the UK will enter the "unknown field" after the lockdown, and may have to re-implement some restrictions in the future. The daily number of new infections this summer may exceed 100,000.
On July 6th local time, the UK Ministry of Health and Social Security released the latest data showing that in the past 24 hours, the UK has added 28,773 new confirmed cases of new coronavirus pneumonia in the UK, the highest in a single day since the end of January this year, with a total of 4958,868 confirmed cases; 37 new deaths, with a total of 128,268 deaths.
This article is an exclusive article of Observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.
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