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A lot of ppl are claiming that 'pandemic fatigue' in Britain is pushing public to 'give up' on prevention. Latest polling however shows an 11% *increase* in percentage of ppl claiming to follow Coronavirus rules since last month (up to 73%) https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/britons-increasingly-abiding-covid-19-rules-social-responsibility-and-nhs-primary-drivers
'Almost 9 in 10 think that preventing the spread to those most vulnerable, stopping friends and family catching the virus and ensuring the NHS is not overwhelmed (all 87%) are the most convincing arguments for following the rules.'
However, look at the polling on how convincing the reasons are for *not following the rules*
'nearly half (47%) of Britons cite the lack of people in government following the rules as a convincing excuse not to follow them themselves.' https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/britons-increasingly-abiding-covid-19-rules-social-responsibility-and-nhs-primary-drivers
'nearly half (47%) of Britons cite the lack of people in government following the rules as a convincing excuse not to follow them themselves.' https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/britons-increasingly-abiding-covid-19-rules-social-responsibility-and-nhs-primary-drivers
'In the same way that the majority of the public has consistently supported overall lockdown measures, claimed compliance with virus control measures has actually risen with the 2nd wave of the virus. Most people remain far more concerned about the virus than the economy'
I think the good thing is: most ppl want to prevent the spread of coronavirus, and will make real sacrifices to do so, as long as they feel these sacrifices will be properly supported, equally shared, and make a genuine difference.
The problem is, the government have repeatedly broken every one of these conditions - ppl have not been properly supported, do not feel their sacrifices are equally shared and cannot see how they are making a difference.
This is why there is a big gap between intention and adherence with self-isolation - only 18% of ppl with symptoms actually self isolate. Why? Because they are not supported - a £500 payment is a joke and ppl have to get food and medicine.
Lots of anger abt 'young ppl' but not abt the whole story:
'Non-adherence was associated with: men, younger age groups, having a dependent child in the household, lower socio-
economic grade, greater hardship during the pandemic, and working in a key sector'
'Non-adherence was associated with: men, younger age groups, having a dependent child in the household, lower socio-
economic grade, greater hardship during the pandemic, and working in a key sector'
So the research suggests that ppl failing to isolate are young, poor, have both dependents and precarious jobs in key sectors... and do not receive any real government support. They intend to isolate, but realise they cannot. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.15.20191957v1.full.pdf
Really good article in the BMJ arguing that there is no 'evidence for the kind of decreasing trend in compliance with regulations that could be construed as (pandemic) fatigue' https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/10/26/the-concept-of-fatigue-in-tackling-covid-19/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork
'Evidence suggests that, as with other behaviours, low adherence to the rules around self-isolation may be largely because of people’s life circumstances, such as the demands of their work or family life and lack of financial resilience.'
'Reported adherence has been lower in younger people, men, people living with others, key workers, people living with children... Lower adherence to general rules and guidance appears to be more related to life circumstances than to motivation.'
'The decline in complete adherence in late May in England appears to have been exacerbated by a large drop in trust in the government associated with its handling of the “Cummings incident,”'
This FT article offers some good context on why ppl in Britain arent isolating when they should: 'The UK has the lowest mandatory sick pay for Covid-19 sufferers in the OECD as a proportion of the average worker’s earnings.' https://amp.ft.com/content/51aea217-4da7-423a-9e77-50eea30fe903?__twitter_impression=true
Hugely important difference between those who rely on SSP and those on more generous company schemes: '75 per cent of managers are covered by company schemes, dropping to 43 per cent of those in caring, leisure and other service occupation'
'“If I went off sick I would literally go from almost £400 a week to £95 a week,” one care worker told me. She would still quarantine if she had symptoms, for the sake of the elderly people she cares for, but she wouldn’t know how to cover her bills.'
The refusal to pay proper sick pay is stopping ppl from isolating, and accelerating the spread of the virus.
'An official study found that care homes that offered their staff sick pay were less likely to have cases of coronavirus than those that didn’t.'
'An official study found that care homes that offered their staff sick pay were less likely to have cases of coronavirus than those that didn’t.'
Instead of simply increasing the value of sick pay, the government has only offered a paltry, patchy and inaccessible system of £500 payments. 'Mr Sunak presumably wants to avoid making improvements to the British safety net that would be politically hard to unwind in future.'
