A winter with Covid?

Covid-19 looks as if it is on the rise as we approach winter 2020. This month governments are being criticised for the decisions they have made about care homes. The John’s Campaign has appealed for a Judicial Review of the decisions taken by the government. Amnesty International has published a report which it says “highlights the UK government’s failure to protect older people in care homes” during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The Alzheimer’s Society has published a report which emphasises how “exhausted family and friends have spent 92 million extra hours caring for loved ones with dementia since lockdown”.

The John’s Campaign is arguing that the government acted wrongly on the basis of breach of human rights of the residents and their close relatives.  Public authorities are not allowed to interfere with your private and family life under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998. But that isn’t an absolute right.  It can be modified if necessary “...in the interests of national security, public safety or…the protection of health.”  The government could argue that it made the decisions for public safety with the knowledge available at the time.   They thought they were protecting health.

 But in terms of “the protection of health” it clearly did not work because so many people in care homes still got COVID. And knowledge available to them at the time would have made it clear that visiting is not an optional leisure activity, but part of the care.  Many residents appear to be suffering health problems simply as the result of the Covid-19 visiting restrictions imposed by the authorities.

Read more in my blog post here a-winter-with-covid19