Herd immunity theory professor says pubs could reopen safely

PUBS and restaurants could reopen tomorrow without risking a second wave of coronavirus, a leading Oxford scientist has suggested.

Prof Sunetra Gupta said there was a “strong possibility” that the hospitality industry could get back to work without posing a danger to the public.

In an interview, the professor of theoretical epidemiology at the University of Oxford called for a “rapid exit” from lockdown, adding that the Covid-19 epidemic is already “on the way out”.

Much of the UK population may already have been exposed to the virus before the Government ordered people to stay at home, she added.

“I think there’s a chance we might have done better by doing nothing at all,” she said.

In March, Prof Gupta and her team published a controversial study claiming the virus had been spreading in secret for months, with up to half the population already exposed.

She insisted during an interview with the Unherd website that her theory was correct, and the UK had already developed a high level of herd immunity to Covid-19.

She added there was now a “strong possibility” that pubs, nightclubs, festivals could reopen this week.

Meanwhile, pubs warned that the two-metre social distancing rule would make it difficult to operate.

The British Beer and Pub Association said that if the UK followed the World Health Organisation’s advice of imposing a one-metre distance it would “enable many more pubs to viably reopen”.