Ben Lowry: Pain must be shared if we have long lockdowns, including among public sector and starting with political pay cuts
This is not because I think a lockdown cannot stop the virus — it patently will do if you are a society like China, where no-one would dare breach a rule and everyone was confined entirely to home for months on end (far more severe than our March restrictions).
But sceptics (of which I am only a partial one) fear that lockdown is worse than cure by impacting on other untreated diseases, by damaging people’s mental health and by causing financial ruin.
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Hide AdIt is true that the so-called Zero Covid approach is looking good now in places such as Australia and New Zealand, and that ‘live with it’ approach of Sweden is not looking so good.
But if we go down a road of brutal suppression there must be shared sacrifice, starting with pay cuts for politicians and scientific advisors, then wider measures to fund furlough such as public sector pay freezes (exempting frontling heroes).
• Ben Lowry (@benlowry2) is News Letter deputy editor
• Ben Lowry: Just imagine if the Holylands was 94% Protestant
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