By Gabriel Princewill-
Mixed messages on the Uk’s work from home advice is harmful to the moral of the British public, many of whom are still trying to rationalise the implications of the current easing of the lockdown.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week said: “I think we should now say, well, ‘go back to work if you can’.
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However, today, Patrick Valance’s outrightly contradicted Johnson’s advice , undermining his leadership when he said there is “absolutely no reason” to change the guidance on working from home.The conflicting messages effectively serves to perpetuate uncertainty and instability among the workforce, making mockery of the current lockdown easing and the accompanying guidance.
Britain was put on full lock down on March 23rd, following frightening numbers of statistical deaths arising from Covid-19. The lockdown was implemented in a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus, stated to be the worst threat the country had faced in several decades. Soaring numbers of victims from the pandemic was of alarming concern and kept the majority of the public confined to their homes, except when they needed essential goods.
As the numbers started to dramatically fall two months later, the lockdown was progressively eased, eventually leading to the re-opening of pubs, none essential shops, then finally, barbers and hairdressers.
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Social Distancing
The stipulated rules of social distancing remain in place, but was also relaxed slightly from 2metres to one metres plus. The overarching aim of the easing was to strike a balance between the need to minimise the damage to the economy, while simultaneously keeping the virus as suppressed as possible.
Millions of Britons continue to proceed with extreme caution and apprehension because the virus has not disappeared yet. And ofcourse, caution should not be thrown to the wind.Nonetheless, nobody should want a protracted state of affairs that’s destabilising. Companies that can still perform optimally from home are free to continue that way.
The choice for many people and businesses to continue to work from home is quite different from presenting a case suggesting it is detrimental to go to work, without presenting substantiated facts.
It is also counter intuitive to suggest professor Valace or the scientific body of which he is a part, has irrefutable facts that going to work would substantially increase the chances of the resurgence he speaks about. The existence of any such facts would have been shown to the prime minister for any avoidance of doubt.
Sir Patrick said home working was still a “perfectly good option” for many.
He told the Commons science and technology committee it was his view – and one shared by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) – that distancing measures were still important for containing the virus. But he didn’t say for how long, because he is expressing a subjective view he cannot assert with any degree of certainty.
“Of the various distancing measures, working from home for many companies remains a perfectly good option because it’s easy to do,” he said.
“I think a number of companies think it’s actually not detrimental to productivity. And in that situation, there’s absolutely no reason I can see to change it.”
“There are many factors that are going to play in this as we look and say, ‘what is it that makes some countries having done worse than others?’, and there will be decisions made that will turn out not to have been the right decisions at the time.”
Probable
Acting as a prophet of doom,Sir Patrick said it was “quite probable” that the virus will come back “in different waves over a number of years”, but stressed the UK was still going through the first wave.
“When people talk about second wave now, actually, what I think they’re talking about really is a re-emergence of the first wave,” he said.
“All we have done is suppressed the first wave and when you take the brakes off you would expect it to come back.”
Caution
Caution in the midst of a fatal virus is paramount, but the rhetoric from Professor Vallance in which he needlessly speculates on the resurgence of the virus in the winter is unnecessary. Companies and individuals should make the judgement whether to work from home or physically appear at work.
Ideally, the scientific body and the government should speak with one voice. If the group of experts cannot convince the government of their position,who are we meant to trust?
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