YEARS after the Berlin Wall fell, the term “Ostalgie” was coined to describe a yearning among some residents of the former East Germany to go back to the way things were.

A strange phenomenon, but one that is being echoed, bizarrely, today. No-one thought anything could be worse than 2020, but just look at how 2021 is shaping up.

“What a year it has been and it is only ten days old,” said Sky News’ Sophy Ridge, reflecting the mood of many. “Another national lockdown, record numbers of cases and deaths, and schools closed again.” Hardly the cheeriest of New Year greetings but one knew what she meant.

After the tumultuous events in Washington DC last Wednesday, and with the Democrats threatening to begin impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump on Monday, Sunday show producers could have spent time looking across the Atlantic.

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But given the record number of Covid deaths in the UK, taking the toll past 80,000, there was only ever one subject to be tackled. All important news is local in the end, and it doesn’t get more important than matters of life and death.

As governments across the UK have said, there is now a race between the spread of the virus and the speed of the vaccination rollout. While the latter moves up a gear from Monday, the danger in the meantime is that the NHS will be overwhelmed. The nightmare scenario of sick people being turned away from hospitals, or sitting in queues of ambulances, is closer to becoming reality than it has ever been.

If that happens, who or what will be to blame? Governments for not acting swiftly enough in moving into lockdown, or the public for not sticking by the rules and buying the NHS more time?

Matt Hancock, England’s Health Secretary, took a hard line approach on Ridge on Sunday, saying he “absolutely backed the police” who handed out £200 fines to two women who had driven five miles to walk round a reservoir.

To bring home the necessity of working at home if possible, Mr Hancock was not in his usual perch in the Marr studio, or outside Broadcasting House. He was at home in a small room painted the same red as the ministerial box on display.

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John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister, has always done interviews on the BBC's Politics Scotland from his home, and yesterday was no different. This time, however, the shot was wide enough to include a wall clock, its pendulum swinging away. No one needed a reminder that time was of the essence, but here it was anyway.

Over on The Andrew Marr Show, the host wondered whether public “disobedience” was the result of mixed messages from ministers. Both he and Ridge tried to find out from Mr Hancock what evidence there was for saying the public was not sticking to the rules as they had done last March. The way data was collected had changed, said Mr Hancock. It was not possible to make exact comparisons with last March, but people were doing better than in the November lockdown.

Only Politics Scotland, presented by Lynsey Bews, dug deeper. Bews interviewed Professor Stephen Reicher, a behavioural scientist at the University of St Andrews. By his reckoning, 90% of the public was complying. Non-compliance was due to people not understanding the rules, or not feeling able to self-isolate. He pointed to the example of New York, where people were given hotel rooms, with food and medicine provided. There was even provision for looking after pets. The “narrative of blame” was highly counter-productive, said Professor Reicher.

Nevertheless, it is a narrative we can expect to see stepped up this week. The effects of easing restrictions around Christmas are only just beginning to feed through, and the line from ministers and medics is that things will become far worse before they get better. But what else can governments do? Where is the slack in the system?

The Scottish Government is turning its attention on employers and whether they are allowing staff to work from home where possible. Other options could include imposing curfews, telling people to wear masks outdoors, and removing some support bubbles – none of which will be easy to enforce.

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In some ways governments are continuing to pay the price for being too successful in their messaging last March. The public was terrified into staying at home. While this brought the infection rate down as desired, it also had the deadly serious effect of making people stay away from hospitals when they were genuinely ill. People died who could have been saved.

Now the same message, stay home and save lives, is on its third outing and is, perhaps understandably, losing impact. The public feels as though it is doing its bit. What it needs to see are governments doing the same. That means making a success of the vaccination rollout.

Already there are mutterings about the system being too slow, and red tape stopping retired medical staff from helping. Ministers need to act fast to reassure people and keep them on side. They can begin with publishing detailed daily information setting out how many vaccinations have been carried out and where. There cannot be a repeat of the PPE chaos, when early problems were allowed to fester. The public is waiting, and watching.