The campaign to beat the pandemic

Press release Covid-19 Pandemic is not over, It is still destroying lives

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Twice as many deaths involving Covid occurred during Summer 2022 compared with last Summer. More than 5,700 Covid deaths have been registered in the UK since 8 June 2022. This is 95% higher than in the same period last year, when there were 2,936 UK deaths involving Covid.

The Tory government still insist the pandemic is over despite the evidence. The Tories claim vaccination is the only protection we need, despite Omicron subvariants continuously breaching vaccine boundaries through mutation, and repeatedly reinfecting the population. And outrageously the government are now removing the duty for NHS staff and care workers to test themselves for Covid if they have been near an infected person but are asymptomatic.

The Zero Covid UK campaign actively supported a Vaccines-Plus strategy, combining mass vaccination with a range of practical and realistic public health measures. These include wearing masks in public places, free covid tests, contact tracing, effective ventilation, safe workplaces, decent sick pay, and enforceable air quality standards.

We are now launching Covid Action, our new name.

• We are committed to reducing community spread and deaths. Our new name highlights our dedication to taking action to beat the pandemic.
• We will continue to campaign for a Vaccines-Plus strategy with greater energy and commitment.
• We will actively challenge the government on a wide range of pandemic-related issues that need to be confronted, like Long Covid, patent waivers for global vaccination, greater funding for research and development of the next generation of vaccines and antivirals.

Joan Twelves from the Covid Action Steering Committee said:

“The pandemic is not over. We demand government action to rapidly diminish Covid infection and deaths. The NHS needs the resources now to defeat Covid 19 – vaccines, contact tracing, self-testing and full sick pay for all NHS and Care workers. The mass vaccination booster campaign needs to start now and should be offered to every person in the UK. Vaccination of all global populations is absolutely essential.”

Who are we?

• Covid Action UK is a grassroots, activist campaign of individuals and affiliated labour and trade union organisations who originally came together as Zero Covid UK in November 2020 to challenge the UK government’s approach to the pandemic.
• We are putting forward an alternative strategy, aimed at eliminating community transmission of Covid-19. We are campaigning for this to be adopted by Labour and all other political parties, the Westminster government, and the governments of all the devolved nations in these islands, in order to save lives, prevent the collapse of the NHS and care systems, and stamp down on Covid-19 and all its variants.
• A Vaccines-Plus strategy is supported by numerous scientists, doctors, epidemiologists, and public health experts, and has been implemented by a variety of countries around the world. We want to see Covid transmission driven down to low levels, to stop more new variants emerging, and to end the continued threat to the lives, wellbeing, and economic potential of the global community that has blighted all our lives since 2020.

• You can follow Covid Action UK on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
• You can sign up for email updates through the action network here.

Photo credit: Carmen Williams