Handling of crisis is ‘social murder’, says campaign
Ahead of the first ever virtual Hazards Conference last month, the Hazards Campaign labelled the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis as “nothing less than ‘social murder’”.
It demanded that the government implement a zero COVID-19 transmission policy and called on prime minister Boris Johnson to resign if he refuses to do so.
It said the government has ignored work as a major site of infection and transmission and its lockdown came too late. It also said the government had eased restrictions too early “in a race to return to work” when it had not even met its own tests, let alone the more stringent requirements laid down by the Hazards Campaign and teaching unions.
England has one of the worst death and transmission statistics in the world, said Hazards, because the government “has failed to act, failed to protect and failed in its job to put the health of people before profits”.
Hazards Campaign chair Janet Newsham said Johnson has lost the trust and confidence of the public and, with that, “the ability to drive the virus out of our country”.
With the North of England “in chaos”, she added: “Much of the current mess is because of failed enforcement in workplaces, failed lock-downs and controls of the risks”.