If the NCOC has not already run up against a barrier of old-fashioned plain, dumb insolence from the general public on the issue of vaccinations, it soon will, and then it will find itself up the creek without a paddle. The NCOC has decided on new, more strict, penalties to persuade people to get vaccinated, because it fears that otherwise any failure would lead to a disastrous increase in infections, which would in turn lead to the sort of pressure on the healthcare system as would cause it to collapse. As it is, it is also pretty close to doing so. The culprit behind all of this is the coronavirus’ delta variant, which is not just more deadly, but more infectious.
Though vaccinations continue apace, with 50 million doses having been administered by Friday, the country is still a long way from achieving the sort of vaccination coverage that might confer herd immunity. However, there seems to be a limit to how many people will be forced to get vaccinated by such measures as forbidding them from travelling or stopping them from getting salaries. Instead of such velvet gloves, the government may find that it may have to uncover the mailed fist, and instead of all such ‘hidden’ coercive measures, it will have to use the obvious power of the state.
The problem has not spiralled out of control, as was to be observed in neighbouring India, where at one point the dead were left lying in the streets, and where the healthcare system actually did collapse. That was because of the delta variant which originated there. The crisis has not reached such stark extremes, but that should be no cause of complacence. It is near enough that extreme that it may spiral out of control. The key lies to efficient vaccinations, and the government must ramp up availability.
