What’s Changed Since COVID Came Along?
The political status quo remains firmly in place and COVID has played a role in this
We’re currently caught between a rock and the hard place that is COVID. The latter is self-explanatory. Our lives have been changed, perhaps irrevocably, by a virus that has rampaged across the world and our own country. When we eventually come out the other side it’s hard to tell what the new normal will be. But it’s a fair prediction that it won’t be what it was two years ago.
On the other side wedging us in is the rock in the form of the government. It’s hard to know what’s worse: The incompetence or the duplicity. Our leaders dithered while, at the same time, in the public sphere they undermined the medical experts overseeing the country’s response to COVID-19.
Profit had to come first. And that meant putting businesses and other vested interests ahead of the lives of average people.
None of this is new. We live with it just as we live with COVID. Unable to do much of anything but stay at home and hope for the best, we take the blows and continue on as well as we can.
At the same time other countries are racing ahead in their vaccination programmes. In Ireland the health service is struggling to even recruit the vaccinators in the first place because of an onerous application and training process. Apparently GPs and nurses must be taught how to administer a simple vaccine, previous experience be damned.
The enemy of my enemy
Somewhat ironically COVID-19 has likely been the government’s saviour thus far. Imagine how many people would have been on the streets in reaction to the publishing of the report into the Mother and Baby Homes if restrictions weren’t in place? Or how many would be outside the Dáil calling for the resignation for Leo Varadkar as gardaí investigate him for potentially breaching the Official Secrets Act?
The government can lumber on while most of us remain isolated from each other due to the lockdown. In a situation like this dissent beyond the realm of social media and the Internet more generally is a non-starter. Most people are responsible and are playing their part in combatting the virus. And that means social distancing and no unnecessary travel or gatherings. So here we are, caught between a government rock and the COVID pandemic.
Of course parts of the media continue to play their usual role of distractors in chief. Varadkar may be under investigation but Sinn Féin and Mary Lou McDonald are, somehow, the real threat. So much so that the Sinn Féin leader is worthy of being reproduced in cartoon format in one of the country’s most popular newspapers whereupon she’s portrayed as a witch.
This isn’t to say that Sinn Féin doesn’t have its issues. Obviously it does. The homophobia and racism within its ranks are well documented. But the government and its supporters in the media use McDonald and her party as a convenient distraction any time the slightest government misstep or controversy arises. It’s as predictable as it is tedious.
Everything is different but not
All people want in this era of COVID is some accountability and some honesty. We’ve gotten neither. What we’ve been given is politics as usual.
Varadkar denies any wrongdoing in leaking a document to a friend. Micheal Martin insists a zero COVID approach is “not possible” yet an endless lockdown has become the norm. And the Green Party is intent on ensuring its rightful elimination at the ballot box by marching in lockstep with its coalition partners Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
More of the same in an exceptional time just doesn’t cut it. But there are those who contend that it does. And underestimating the popularity of this view amongst people with significant influence on the path our country takes would be a grave mistake. While we put our lives on hold they ensure certain nests are well feathered.
COVID has changed almost everything. Almost.