Reflections on vaccination and scapegoating

The government appears to have decided to blame those who have been infected by coronavirus for having refused to be vaccinated. However, they have not produced the evidence that this is the case. Rathe, as has often been the case during this pandemic, the government prefers to deflect blame from its own failures by making public health solely a matter of individual responsibility. In many cases, people have been unable to obtain vaccinations because of anti-social working patterns or poor transport connections. And they are the people who are often at most risk from catching coronavirus, because they often live in cramped conditions in multi-generational households.

So the obvious solution is to actively bring vaccinations to them, with the active involvement of neighbourhoods and community organisations. The government could make such vaccinations a matter of urgent priority, since these are the people who are most at risk of catching the disease, and of dying from it. Yet the government prefers to blame those at the sharp end of inequality, exploitation and austerity for the consequences of these phenomena. This is a self-defeating policy if the government wants to contain and defeat the virus, but brilliant if Alexander and his cabinet of hangers-on wish to preserve their reputations.