A few weeks ago now in one of our councillor briefings we heard from our Public Health team about a really fascinating piece of research they’d commissioned, looking at the issue of self-isolation. I was stunned to read in the news a while back about the relatively small proportion of people who actually self-isolate when told that they should, and was interested and concerned to learn more about the reasons behind this, particularly the ones specific to Newham.

I thought I’d share the presentation we were given here, as I thought some Forest Gate North residents might also be interested, both to know about the evidence-based and thoughtful way that the Council and Public Health are approaching this issue, and also to see some of the results.

You can read the entire presentation here.

The main thing that struck me after seeing it was how uncertainty about employment is such an issue. The quotation from the participant who was told they had to self-isolate but was told by their employer that they could not perhaps should not be surprising, but I found it very shocking.

‘I said, any chance I can get 14 days leave or like self-isolation. They said no, as long as you don’t have any symptoms and said, I can’t lie to them if I don’t develop any symptoms. I can’t lie that I developed symptoms since I didn’t have anything.’

I also feel, as I know others will, that the structural barriers that prevent people from isolating (caring responsibilities, not knowing how to get food, fearing for their employment, etc) are a stark contrast with the government messages (‘look into their eyes’ etc) which are focussed on individuals and blaming them. I can’t help feeling angry, actually, reading this information, about how the inequalities in our economy have always had a terrible impact on people on low incomes, but even now – even now as they are having an impact on our inability to control Coronavirus, the messages and the approach from the government are still about blaming people rather than making society more equal.

But, as I often say: here we are. Local Labour party members are working at the moment in preparation for the London Mayoral elections. Currently the only activity we can do is calling people, which I’m not going to pretend is anything other than quite hard work! But we want to do everything we can to win elections, and to get the Tories out of government which I think is the only way we are going to make real and lasting improvements and make the UK more fair and equal.

I didn’t start typing thinking that I would be writing a short political polemic! I hope that you find the research interesting. If you have more questions about it, I can’t necessarily answer them myself, but I may be able to find out for you.

Take care all, and stay well.