London is back in lockdown.
This time due to a new variant of the coronavirus which could be up to 70% more transmissible. It was identified because the county of Kent, despite being in the highest level of lockdown, was not seeing a decline in case numbers.
And so last night, Boris Johnson, the UK’s Prime Minister, delivered a surprise address announcing London and the South East of the UK will enter a new level of lockdown called Tier 4. Under Tier 4, Christmas plans are off the table, travel is prohibited, and all non-essential retail stores must close.
Many of us are frustrated with how the government has handled its communication of the pandemic. For example, take a look at the names of the UK’s tiering system in the diagram below.
Medium, High, Very High, and Tier Four, just don’t make sense.
When trying to organise 66 million people, the names we choose are important. They need to be simple and clear, but there has been vagueness and confusion from the government at every stage of this pandemic.
Although I’m unlikely to ever be in the situation where I’m responsible for 66 million people, there’s definitely a lesson here—courtesy of the UK government—on how not to name something.