14 New Stour & Avon, December 17, 2021
MPs’ round-up
No rationale for the latest Covid regulations As Parliament rose for the Christmas Recess, it was preoccupied with how to address the challenge of the Omicron variant. The good news is that those infected with the latest strain suffer milder symptoms with an extremely small chance of requiring hospital treatment. But there is disappointment for those who have already been double jabbed. They are now as vulnerable to infection from Omicron as the unvaccinated. This shows that there is no justification for the divisive policy of requiring vaccine passports as a precondition for entry to venues. It also negates the case for requiring double vaccination as a condition of employment. Restrictions upon individual liberty should not be imposed without the strongest evidence in support. It was because of the lack of such evidence that I joined so many colleagues in voting
against the latest regulations. The collateral damage already caused by Covid-19 restrictions remains of a particular concern. One in ten hospital beds are now occupied by patients who are ready to be discharged but for whom a care home vacancy cannot be found. The crisis in care homes where there are reported to be up to 60,000 staffing vacancies has been exacerbated by the requirement that everyone working in a care home, even if not in direct contact with a resident, must be double vaccinated. We are now faced with a similar perverse consequence flowing from the requirement that those working in the NHS will need to be double vaccinated as a condition of employment from April. One of my constituents who is a senior clinician locally has reported to me that, while he
Christchurch & East Dorset: Chris Chope has recovered from Covid which he caught while unvaccinated and, therefore, has significant antibodies, he will be discriminated against in comparison with another colleague who caught Covid despite having been double vaccinated. What can be the rationale for that? Further collateral damage is being caused to young people by inhibiting the
normal social engagement which should be fundamental in their development. Working from home is often neither practical nor desirable, especially for younger employees as it also prevents them from being able to learn on the job. At the time of writing, the World Health Organisation has not reported any deaths from Omicron in the 38 countries where it is in evidence. Let us hope that that situation continues and encourages us all to put Covid-19 into perspective. We must learn to live with it and make such minimal adjustments to our own lives as are warranted by individual circumstance. It should not be the role of Government to terrorise the population by fear of unsubstantiated risks. n May I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy 2022.
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