SAGE 'enthusiastic' about idea started by BBC, but with one minor alteration
It was revealed last week that the BBC is offering white lanyards to staff who are returning to the office but would like to continue ‘social distancing’. The Corporation has since exceeded itself by publishing an article highlighting “calls” for the introduction of wearable symbols showing that the wearer has a weakened immune system and would like to keep a distance.
There’s just one call mentioned in the article, actually, from a man who would like the system to become an “accepted way of people identifying themselves”. Neil Collingwood, 64, from Leek, Staffordshire, said the ending of England’s lockdown rules on July 19th was not good news for people less able to fight off Covid. Even people with two vaccine jabs were not completely without risk, he said. He has made a prototype armband. It “is bright orange and uses the universal symbol for first aid”, Mr Collingwood explained.
Enter stage right the government's advisory group for emergencies (SAGE who thought the idea was 'novel' and should be adopted by the government.. with one minor alteration: Instead of the vulnerable and immune-deficient wearing an armband to identify themselves, the unvaccinated, who it is far more important to identify, should be made to wear one, at all times, whilst in public. Excited by the idea, SAGE went further, suggesting that, for the identification of 'refuseniks' a fine of ten thousand pounds should be levied on any individual who was discovered to be unvaccinated but not wearing such an armband. "This would have the added psychological effect of making people reconsider their choices, as we want to make being unvaccinated as socially unacceptable as drink-driving" said a Whitehall spokesman.
The idea bares more than a passing resemblance to the Nazi's policy of making all Jews wear armbands displaying the Star of David during the days leading up to the Holocaust. Jews throughout Nazi-occupied Europe were forced to wear the armbands for means of identification. The badges were often printed on coarse yellow cloth and were a garish yellow colour. The star, which represented the star of David, was outlined in thick, black lines and the word 'Jew' printed in mock-Hebraic type. In the Warsaw ghetto, Jews wore a white armband with a blue Star of David on their left arm. In some ghettos, even babies in prams had to wear the armbands or stars. Jewish shops were also marked with a Yellow Star.
The star was intended to humiliate Jews and to mark them out for segregation and discrimination. The policy also made it easier to identify Jews for deportation to camps.