Doctors’ leaders condemn Johnson’s ‘irresponsible’ lifting of lockdown

Doctors' leaders have condemned Boris Johnson's "irresponsible" decision to press ahead with lockdown lifting in England despite Covid-19 infections continuing to surge.

The British Medical Association (BMA) warned of "potentially devastating consequences" after the Prime Minister confirmed on Monday that most mandatory restrictions will end next week.

Mr Johnson acknowledged the pandemic "is not over" and appealed to people to proceed with caution.

At the same time, he said postponing the easing of restrictions into the autumn would risk reopening at a time when schools are back from their summer holidays and peoplearespendingmoretime indoors as the weather turns cold.

However, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the BMA council chair, said that by going ahead on July 19, the Government was reneging on its promise to be led by the data and the impact on the NHS.

He said scrapping restrictions while a significant proportion of the population was still not fully vaccinated, would allow the virus to "retighten its grip", driving up infections and hospitalisations and putting more lives at risk.

"It's irresponsible - and frankly perilous - that the Government has decided to press ahead with plans to lift the remaining Covid-19 restrictions on July 19," he said.

"The BMA has repeatedly warned of the rapidly rising infection rate and the crippling impact that Covid-related hospitalisations continue to have on the NHS, not only pushing staff to the brink of collapse but also driving up already lengthy waiting times for elective care.

"The Prime Minister repeatedly emphasised the importance of a slow and cautious approach, but in reality the Government is throwing caution to the wind by scrapping all regulations in one fell swoop - with potentially devastating consequences."

Professor Calum Semple, a Government scientific adviser, suggested the UK is unlikely to see a return to lockdowns and school suspensions even though winter will be "rough".

Prof Semple, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and professor of child health and outbreakmedicineattheuniversity of Liverpool, said he thought measures such as mask-wearing could be reintroduced in England over the winter to deal with a spike in Covid cases.

In Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has suggested mandatory mask-wearing could remain in place after restrictions are relaxed on August 9.

Professor Graham Medley, alsoasagemember,saidmaskwearing "probably won't do any good" unless it is mandatory, adding that the current Covidwavecouldlastsixweeks at its peak.

Speakinginapersonalcapacity, Prof Semple said the "winter bump" of Covid cases would be"miserable"duetoamixture of Covid-19 and the respiratory viruses that have not been seen for the past year as people stayed at home.

Asked on the BBC whether restrictions would come back, he said: "Possibly, and it may just be about reinforcing some common sense.

"It may be bringing back some mask-wearing in certain environments, but I don't foresee the lockdowns or the school suspensions that we've seen."

Prof Semple said he thought "there'snorighttimetounlock" butsuggesteditwas"quiterealistic" that there could be up to 2,000 hospital admissions per day, as predicted in central modelling assumptions submitted to Sage.

He added: "My big message to people now is sure we've weakened the link between community cases and hospital cases, but that link is not broken... it's the people that are not vaccinated that are still coming to harm."

Of the people currently going into hospital with coronavirus, he said: "They're nearly all unvaccinated, and what's surprising is that although they're not dying, they are suffering quite a lot of injuries, so we'reseeingalotofkidneyinjuries and lung injuries in these younger people."

Prof Semple added that he would continue to wear a face mask "particularly in enclosed areas".

Meanwhile, Prof Medley, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the summer peak of coronavirus, which is predicted to hit next month, could last six weeks.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme:"we'veneverseen a peak before that hasn't been controlled.

"The intention is not to introduce a lockdown for this peak. Then we are going to see a natural peak and that may well be long and disseminated.

"So even if we don't get up to very high numbers, the numbers that we get up to might last for several weeks, six weeks or so, in which case there's still a considerable burden on healthcare.

"So, although we might not get over 2,000 admissions a day, if that lasts six weeks then that's a lot of people."

Prof Medley said mask-wearing "probably won't do any good" when the UK Government ends the legal requirement for the protection in England on July 19.

"I will wear a mask to protect other people," he said.

"I think it's quite a reasonable thing to do, it doesn't have a huge imposition in terms of economic impact or in terms of freedom, and I think there is evidence to suggest it does good, but only if everybody does it.

"So I think that, without the mandation, then we end up with a situation where even if the majority of people, let's say 70 per cent of people, wear a mask, will that actually do any good because of the 30 per cent who don't?

"I think that is something which still needs to be determined and discussed.”