Yes, I know. Hasn’t everything that could possibly be said about the lockdown-breaking Downing St Christmas party been said? Not quite.
Because for all the political one-upmanship in Westminster and the rightful anger around the country, for all the jeering in the Commons and the screaming newspaper headlines, we have lost sight of who is once again going to pay the price for No 10’s malicious incompetence: disabled people.
With omicron spreading and pandemic fatigue really tugging at people’s resolve as Christmas approaches, the last thing disabled and clinically vulnerable people needed was for the government to give people licence to break the rules that keep us safe.
But that’s exactly what’s happened; and in refusing to ’fess up, Boris Johnson and his ministers have only added to the sense that rule breaking can be justified. Just call it a business meeting!
This matters because, for many disabled people, the pandemic is far from over. While the vaccines are a wonder of scientific progress - and have undoubtedly saved the lives of many clinically vulnerable people - they do not work for everyone.
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Some of the most vulnerable cannot be vaccinated at all, while for some immunocompromised people the jab will only trigger a small antibody response. If, as expected, omicron has some ability to evade vaccines, this problem will only become more acute. Vulnerable people will become even more exposed.
The only real way to protect these people is to limit the spread of the virus and thereby limit their chance of catching it. And the only way to achieve that is if everyone else follows the rules by getting jabbed, working from home where possible, taking a million lateral flow tests and isolating when positive.
These measures aren’t onerous, but they are muddled and a faff, and lots of people will wonder why they’re sticking a swab up their nose for the third time this week when No 10 staff couldn’t even follow much clearer rules last year.
The temptation to cut corners — to skip that test or go out when you’ve got a tickle in your throat — will go up just a little bit. But it’s that little bit that, spread over the whole country, can be the difference between safety and the ICU for a vulnerable person.
Disabled people have already been disproportionately punished by the government’s inadequate and flailing response to the pandemic. Whenever obviously needed restrictions have been delayed or prematurely lifted, disabled people have had to wall ourselves off from those able to relax and have fun. The social gulf has widened. But, more importantly, lives have been needlessly lost.
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From a chaotic shielding policy to the near collapse of social care, to prioritising Euro 2020 over public safety, our health and futures have been risked in favour of economic and political expediency. It should come as no surprise that, despite making up 20 per cent of the population, disabled people have represented 60 per cent of Covid deaths.
With so many nondisabled people now at least partially protected by the vaccine and so many poised to bend or ignore restrictions, this discrepancy could now widen even further as omicron takes hold. Like so many times during the pandemic, disabled and clinically vulnerable people will have to make sacrifices far beyond the comprehension of those who chose a Secret Santa over doing the right thing.
Lucy Webster is a freelance journalist