United Kingdom: A slow response to the COVID-19 pandemic
LONDON — As my family of four packed our suitcases and hopped on the eight hour flight to London, England on March 7, we rest assured that the coronavirus epidemic would soon slow down as President Trump declared the outbreak was “very well under control.”
During this time, reported cases of the virus in the U.S. was at 497 and the countries with greatest concern were China, South Korea and Italy who reported a rapidly increasing number of cases, according to AP News. The United Kingdom, and in particular London, seemed to be addressing the virus nonchalantly. Similar to Trump, the Prime Minister of Britain, Boris Johnson did not announce that there would be any closures of sight-seeing locations or that we could expect travel restrictions anytime soon.
In our eyes, everything seemed to be fairly normal heading into our travel abroad. It wasn’t until we heard news of the escalating events in the U.S. that we realized how serious the impact of COVID-19 truly was.
With the death toll in the UK up to 34,466 as of May 16, according to Worldometer, and Prince Charles, Johnson and two top health officials all contracting the virus, it is evident that COVID-19 is sweeping through the country. My family and I witnessed first-hand the lack of preventative measures taken in Britain and now, can assess how their lack of preparation has resulted in where they are today.
“It was business as usual,” my mother mused, as we discussed how locals in London appeared to be going about their day-to-day life as they typically would. There simply did not appear to be any fear of a contagious virus looming in the air, she said.
Since we rode the tube transportation system nearly everywhere we went, I quickly noticed that people coming to and from work were not wearing gloves or masks or frequently applying hand sanitizer. Instead, there was a sense of normalcy, among locals. At busier times, as the door would automatically open for passengers to step off and on the tube, a herd of people would swiftly fill the space in a sardine-like fashion.
Perhaps, locals’ lack of effort to protect from the virus was due to the UK’s authoritative figures who appeared to express little regard for the spread of COVID-19. On March 9, we observed as ambassadors from countries across the world gathered alongside the royal family and government officials into a 2,000 person congregation for the Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey.
During the duration of our trip, every castle, museum, shop, and restaurant remained open. Even the London Eye, a popular attraction where people are enclosed in a glass rotating sphere that looks similar to a ferris wheel and gives a panoramic view of the city was open. To our surprise, my family of four was accompanied by five other strangers who shared the space with us during our thirty-minute ride on the observation wheel.
It wasn’t until around 3 a.m. March 12, that we realized that things were quickly unraveling in the U.S. After receiving numerous calls from family and friends from back home, we soon learned that Trump announced a strict travel ban that included 26 European countries, one of which we were planning on traveling to that same day. For that reason, we decided to cancel our trip to France and stay in London for the remainder of our time.
“It was surreal how quickly things changed. One minute we thought everything was fine, the next, the president was declaring a national emergency,” said Teresa.
As we continued our stay in the city, we noticed how stores were not selling out of toilet paper or hand sanitizer or experiencing food shortages as people back home were describing. There simply wasn’t a visible reaction to the virus in London.
“We didn’t know what we would be returning to back home. I thought there would maybe be a zombie apocalypse in the street or something,” Reed Forrestel said with a laugh.
On March 5, Johnson explained how part of their plan included exposing a large number of people to the virus in order to build herd immunity and limit infections in the future, according to the New York Times. However, experts have been critical of this approach.
“Herd immunity means 70 percent of people or so have been infected,” said Martin Hibberd, a professor of infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “In my mind, that’s not a desirable aim. That’s a kind of consequence of the strategy,” he explained to the New York Times.
Now, with the prime minister himself infected and cases multiplying, the government has imposed some social distancing strategies including banning mass gatherings and encouraging more people to work from home. March 18, Johnson announced that they plan to close schools in England, according to CNBC.
However, many are critical of the prime minister’s slow response to the pandemic that is taking the lives of many British people. Based on my personal experience, I think they should’ve done more earlier on. As history is beginning to reveal, a slow response has not proved effective.
“They’re trying to walk this terrible balance between not alarming the public, not hurting the economy, but making sure you try to flatten this epidemic,” said Roy Anderson, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College London who spoke to the New York Times.
