The Who's Roger Daltrey has nothing but praise for the UK's National Health Service (NHS) and how its tireless frontline staff has dealt with the coronavirus outbreak. Daltrey told The Sun, “It’s Herculean. They are truly remarkable people as well. I would like to know why sub-standard equipment was bought. If it is sub-standard, why is it sub-standard and who the bloody hell ordered it?”
Daltrey, who has been front and center in the battle against teenage cancer for the past two decades, understands all too well the complexities in fighting disease: “Let’s not look for people to blame. It doesn’t do us any favors. Let’s just fix any problems and let’s take the health service away from being a party political football. It should be non-partisan, untouchable. I don’t think there’s a right way of handling this. This is something we’ve never had in our lifetimes.”
He went on to say, “People in government are doing their best. Too many people expect too much, too quickly. We have to give them all the support we can and let’s hope they flatten the curve. . . I’m an optimist because it’s sharpening up the medicine. The IBM super-computer has identified 70 different drugs that can potentially help cure the virus.”
Daltrey was forced to postpone the week of annual Teenage Cancer Trust benefit shows set for this spring at London's Royal Albert Hall — pushing the concerts until later this year. He spoke about the teenage cancer patients in the face of Covid-19: “If they are in one of our units, they will be isolated and that’s not going to be easy for them. But at least they’re among their own. They’re not next to two-year-olds any more and they’re not next to geriatrics like me. They become a community of their own. They may be locked down but they’ll be a lot happier than they would have been 20 or 30 years ago.”
Regarding the Who — who postponed their dates until 2021 — Daltrey admitted, “We’re almost on our swan song. I’ll be 77 next year and I can’t imagine us going on much longer than that. We continue while I can still sing the notes, simple as that. At the moment, I still can and I’m hoping that next March, I still can too. My voice is not like a guitar. I can’t change the bloody strings! Pete (Townshend) is going to write some songs in the down time, as he still makes fabulous music and still has something to say.”
The Who will be releasing a remixed version of its recent track “Beads On One String,” which Daltrey feels is apropos considering all that's going down with the coronavirus, teenage cancer, among society's other maladies: “The song is so apt for today: 'Got to get us together like beads on one string'“
Roger Daltrey said during an online interview on TheWho.Com a while back that he's amazed at the problems patients living the Western world still face in finding decent and affordable health care “It's so odd, especially when you listen to the flippant way our politicians talk about it. But when you get involved, and you see how many entrenched positions there are. I only know about our system here, I'm sure it's the same the world over. Everybody is protecting a position. And to do anything new in any of these organizations, y'know, especially ours which is publicly funded it's like pushing an eleph. . . a herd of elephants up the stairs.”