‘Protect the NHS’ has become a dangerously effective message

There was an interesting moment at the government’s daily Covid-19 press briefing a couple of weeks ago. Angela McLean, the Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, was reiterating the government’s core message. ‘What really matters’, she said, ‘is that people stay home, protect lives and save the NHS’. Then, a look of confusion, possibly even concern, took over her face. She raised a finger to her mouth and said: ‘Or is it the other way around…?’

In short, she couldn’t remember, for a moment, which message was most important: protecting lives or saving the NHS. She did have the message wrong. The government’s latest public-health adverts make clear what the moral priorities are in Covid-hit Britain: ‘Stay Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives.’

Even when it’s in the right order, I find this messaging extraordinary, and worrying. It suggests our treatment of the NHS as a religion has reached such a dizzying level that the government thinks the best way to secure our obedience during this lockdown is by telling us we’ll be helping to Save the NHS.