Government’s new coronavirus slogan draws widespread scorn

The government’s new slogan for the next phase in the fight against coronavirus (Covid-19)has drawn a lot of scorn, and a certain amount of praise.

After the successful bluntness of the shutdown message of “stay at home, save lives, protect the NHS”, Britons are now set to be asked to “stay alert, control the virus, save lives”.

Top-selling Harry Potter author JK Rowling immediately hit out by saying: “Is Coronavirus sneaking around in a fake moustache and glasses? If we drop our guard, will it slip us a Micky Finn? What the hell is ‘stay alert’ supposed to mean?”

Andy Burnham, the  Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, tweeted that it “feels to me like a mistake to me to drop the clear” stay at home message.

Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said: “The messaging from this Government throughout this crisis has been a total joke, but their new slogan takes it to a new level.”

He wondered: “Stay alert? It’s a deadly virus not a zebra crossing.”

Writer and comedian Adam Kay added that it would be “difficult to stay alert to something that’s 0.0001 millimetres in diameter. This pandemic is going to have as many spikes as a coronavirus”

Others shared criticism of the new slogan:

#stayalert. What kind of buffoon thinks of this kind of nonsense. It is an invisible threat. Staying alert is not the answer #StayHomeSaveLives is. pic.twitter.com/zCRhjfpXx2

— Ian Blackford (@blackfordian1) May 9, 2020

What would happen if you gave an Apprentice candidate 2 hours to design a pandemic slogan.
'We should make it look as radioactive as possible'
'And it should say #StayAlert'
'But that doesn't make any se…..
'Print it, I'm team leader on this task and we've a deadline here' pic.twitter.com/XmehxZk4jc

— Paddy Ross (@PaddyRoss1) May 10, 2020

Fixed it.

This government is doing the bare minimum it can get away with so that at the inevitable public enquiry, they can shrug and say ‘we did run a comms campaign, not our fault if nobody followed the advice’.#StayAlert pic.twitter.com/CaMt5zgmK1

— Dylan / દિલન (@dylan_patel) May 10, 2020

Boris Johnson is expected to unveil a coronavirus warning system when he outlines his plans to gradually ease the lockdown while dropping the “stay home” slogan.

He is set to outline his “road map” to a new normality during an address to the nation on 10 May.

Johnson is planning to urge workers who cannot do their jobs from home to begin returning to their workplaces while following social-distancing rules