Community Service for UK Citizens: Covid-19 Pandemic Recovery Essay

This essay examines the proposal for mandatory community service for UK citizens aged 18-25 to aid in the nation's recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. It discusses the potential benefits, such as increased awareness about vaccination and support for vulnerable communities and small businesses. However, it also raises concerns about the rapid spread of new virus variants, particularly Omicron, and the potential for mandatory service to exacerbate transmission. The essay argues that inexperienced young people may lack the skills to effectively assist vulnerable groups and that the financial investment in a nationwide community service program may not yield the desired results. Instead, the essay advocates for a collaborative approach involving government agencies, financial institutions, healthcare systems, scientists, and scholars as a more effective and less risky strategy for pandemic recovery. The essay concludes that mandatory community service is unlikely to provide successful results due to the risk of virus spread, challenges in organizing inexperienced volunteers, and the potential for financial failure, favoring a collaborative, expert-driven approach instead.

Essay
1

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
2

3

INTRODUCTION
The question on which this essay is prepared is that all UK citizens between the ages of
18 and 25 should perform a compulsory period of two weeks’ community service each year to
assist the UK in recovering from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on UK society. The
COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the United Kingdom on 31st January 2020. In the following
month the quick spread COVID-19 virus in the UK along with different variants resulted in
deaths of thousands of individuals, huge economic losses and stoppage of daily functioning of a
country. This looks at the statement of implementing mandatory voluntary services in United
Kingdom to support recovery from the negative impact of pandemic in UK society and
determines the appropriateness of this statement along with justification of personal views and
opinions.
MAIN BODY
After the arrival of COVID-19 in UK and rising health crisis, the British government
responded with implementation of public health measures in the March of 2020 (Cutri, Mena and
Whiting, 2020). The first wave of pandemic in United Kingdom reached its peak by middle of
April and public restrictions were reduced. The second wave in United Kingdom started in
autumn of 2020 and the peak of second wave resulted in thousand deaths on a daily basis.
Rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations in the United Kingdom in December of 2020 reduced the
spread of COVID-19 and helped stop the second wave. The third wave of the pandemic arrived
with transmission of the delta variant in UK in July of 2021.
Since the past two years United Kingdom has been suffering from the negative impact of
the pandemic and have incurred massive economic loss along with significant changes to the
way in which society functions. On June 9 of 2022 The United Kingdom became the 7th country
worldwide to pass reported deaths because of COVID-19. The pandemic has negatively affected
the UK economy and culture (Ayalon and et. al., 2021). This showcases that strong actions need
to be taken in order to improve the recovery speed of United Kingdom from the pandemic so that
future waves of pandemic can be stopped and the country can quickly move back to normal
economic and cultural environment.
Mandatory volunteerism is a proposed solution for recovering from pandemic in United
Kingdom. This involves making it mandatory that individuals between the age gap of 18 and 25
4

have to participate in the community service focusing on increasing the recovery speed of United
Kingdom from the negative impact of the pandemic. The community service which can support
recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic can include increasing awareness about vaccination and
helping individuals at high risk of infection continue their daily life in isolation. In addition to
this another way in which community service can support quick recovery from pandemic is by
supporting small business firms and vulnerable communities recovering from the pandemic.
The number of individuals in UK between the age group of 18 to 39 years account for
29% of the population (Age group, 2020). As the total population of UK is over 67 million,
many individuals will participate in community service if it was made mandatory. This
showcases that there are many benefits in implementing mandatory community service for young
age group and it will provide beneficial results quickly because of high young population of
United Kingdom. On the other hand there are various challenges which can not only reduce the
recovery of United Kingdom from the pandemic but can also act as the facilitate of a fourth wave
in the country.
The concept of implementing mandatory community service in United Kingdom to
recover from the pandemic is not useful action. The primary justification for this point of view
against the implementing of mandatory community service to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic
is that the virus and its different variants spread quickly. The latest variation of the virus
Omicron has high transmission rate. According to the world health organization the Omicron
variant of COVID-19 is spreading across the globe at an unprecedented rate (Covid: Omicron
spreading at unprecedented rate, WHO says, 2021). At this point easing the COVID-19
restrictions and allowing community service by large number of young population will lead to
further spread of the virus in United Kingdom instead of helping the country recover from the
pandemic.
As per report by the Imperial collage of London after studying the impact of Omicron in
African countries it is understood that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 younger individuals and
individuals with African ethnicity have higher rates of becoming infected with the latest variant
of the virus (Omicron More Infectious in Younger People, People of African Ethnicity, Study
States, 2021). This means that if mandatory community service for young people are
implemented in UK, the chances of transmission of Omicron become more high as younger
people are the demographic which can be infected by this disease quickly. This justifies the
5

viewpoint to not implement compulsory community service for young people as it can lead to
start of third wave. In addition to this, young individuals with lack of experience in various fields
will not be able to provide direct assistance to vulnerable groups.
Young age people do not have the knowledge through which they are able to solve
problem of different vulnerable groups or take action when situations which can lead to
transmission of virus arises (Bahasoan and et. al., 2020). Such type of decisions are best made
by healthcare experts, scientist and first respondents. This type of health crisis where the
identified virus is yet to be studied and understood completely cannot be handled by young
people with lack of knowledge and skills to handle extreme situations.
In order to gain the best results from community service from young people organized
plans and schedules need to be made with clear goals so that specific objectives in relation to
social and economic recovery of the country can be achieved. This also comes with challenges as
ensuring that the members participating in the mandatory community service follow rules
effectively and use their time and resources appropriately for attainment of specific objectives
can be difficult. Inability to effectively face this challenge can worsen the spread of the Omicron
variant in the country. This high risk of virus spread associated with mandatory community
activities further justifies avoiding this action in favour of more calculative ways of facilitating
recovery from the pandemic.
There is also the problem of risk of investment failing to provide suitable results.
Implementing a country wide community service programme requires high financial investment.
The failure of such financial investment to provide appropriate results in terms of economic
recovery of United Kingdom The best way through the country can recover from the pandemic
as quickly as possible is by collaborative working between the government agencies, financial
institutions, healthcare system scientists and scholars. This justifies avoiding implementing
community service for young people and investing in building a collaborative network which
helps deal with this healthcare crisis and any future healthcare situations in the country. This
option also has lower risk of financial failure as experts are involved.
6

CONCLUSION
From the above essay it is concluded that implementation of mandatory community
service for the age group of 18-25 in order to support recovery of thee pandemic will not provide
successful results. This is because the Omicron variants transmits quickly and affects young
people which can worsen the spread of COVID-19 in UK. In addition to this organizing and
executing community services by inexperienced and unskilled young demographic is very
challenging. The financial risk associated with such endeavour also justifies selecting
collaboration across institutions with expert knowledge to effectively recover from the pandemic
over compulsory community service.
7

REFRENCES
Books and Journals
Ayalon and et. al., 2021. Aging in times of the COVID-19 pandemic: Avoiding ageism and
fostering intergenerational solidarity. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 76(2).
pp.e49-e52.
Cutri, R. M., Mena, J. and Whiting, E. F., 2020. Faculty readiness for online crisis teaching:
transitioning to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. European Journal of
Teacher Education, 43(4). pp.523-541.
Bahasoan and et. al., 2020. Effectiveness of online learning in pandemic COVID-
19. International journal of science, technology & management, 1(2). pp.100-106.
Online
Omicron More Infectious in Younger People, People of African Ethnicity, Study States, 2021.
[Online] Available through <https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/omicron-
more-infectious-in-younger-people-people-of-african-ethnicity-study-states>
Age group, 2020. [Online] Available through <https://www.ethnicity-facts-
figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/demographics/age-groups/latest>
Covid: Omicron spreading at unprecedented rate, WHO says, 2021. [Online] Available through
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-59656385>
8