When the COVID-19 Omicron variant started to rear its ugly head at the end of last year, I knew that there was cause for concern. If there’s anything that the last two years have taught me it’s to always expect the unexpected and sleep with one eye open.
That bat from Wuhan did a whole lot more than kill millions of people: it also took with it many people’s faith in the way that institutions are run and really unmasked how ill-prepared and ill-equipped most are in the face of disaster. Going into our third year, you’d think we would know better but, sadly, it doesn’t seem we do.
When the booster shots started to be administered to the vulnerable at the end of summer, I was very pleased. I felt that it was the right thing to do, even though I wasn’t particularly happy with the speed that things were being done at while we were hearing of new variants every few weeks. By the beginning of December, I was expecting to get the call to be boosted myself as more than six months had passed since my second jab but it didn’t happen.
As is customary, we would only bolt the stable door once the horse had well and truly left. What ensued was the scrambling disaster that marked the holiday season where many became scared to break bread with their own families.
As the virus spread, so did everyone’s fear and we were told that, if we wanted to ever eat at a restaurant or visit a café again, we should be boosted. Like many others, I made my appointment and queued for hours with coughing people in front of me and behind me to take my booster because it was what I would have done anyway, regardless of whether I was allowed to eat overpriced spaghetti vongole at a restaurant again.
And, now, the same government that came out hard and strong telling everyone that if they didn’t take their boosters, they were basically banned from visiting most public places has done a U-turn the size of China and basically scrapped its vaccine certificate rules. This hasn’t happened over a matter of months but mere weeks.
Does no one care what kind of message this flip-flopping sends?
A pandemic, by its very nature, is shrouded in unknowns but what has made it even more scary for many of us is how inconsistent, conflicting and downright unstable the messages we have received have been from the people who should be helping us navigate this course as smoothly as possible.
You don’t need a psychology degree to tell you that these kinds of mixed messages spell disaster- Anna Marie Galea
Without going into the merits of whether the government should have taken such a hard stance to begin with, the fact is that it did. It almost verges on the irresponsible to tell people that they must do something, to only take it back a few days later.
How are people meant to take you seriously when you do this? What if we do eventually need a fourth dose? How are you going to persuade the same people you backtracked with that it’s the right thing to do?
How are you going to ask the skeptic to do something when you yourself don’t seem particularly convinced of much at all?
You don’t need a psychology degree to tell you that these kinds of mixed messages spell disaster.
If we can’t even rely on our leaders to lead, where then does that leave us? Nowhere any of us should want to be.