THE POSITIVE PROFESSOR

PROFESSOR KAROL SIKORA

CMO of Rutherford Cancer Centres and Former Director of WHO Cancer Programme

SOCIAL media’s voice of calm Karol Sikora has been signed up by the Daily Express. Readers can now enjoy his soothing advice in these troubled times that has won him hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. If you need reassuring everything’s going to be all right read Professor Positivity.

THERE have been many things in this pandemic that have been unfair on so many people, some out of our control, but some definitely in our control.

From the start I’ve been critical of slamming borders shut to try to keep the virus out.

It’s an unreasonably blunt instrument and to be honest I don’t think it can work. We live in such an interconnected world now, the idea of just totally walling ourselves off is just unworkable.

Sadly, many countries across the world have used this policy and the consequences, as with much of this whole pandemic, are severe.

I try to read all of the tweets that are sent to me, and on Sunday a young woman sent me information about the Love Is Not Tourism campaign.

All over the world, families have been kept apart for months because of the travel restrictions which are not always rational.

It’s had an impact on my family too. We have grandchildren in the United Arab Emirates and Peru, two countries adopting strict border measures with quarantine and isolation.

In fairness to the British Government, the 14- day quarantine requirement is relatively lax compared to many countries and almost unenforced.

In my view the solution for all of these measures, hard or soft, is to test.

Travellers should be tested when they arrive and stay in quarantine until they are screened again five days later.

If both tests are negative, they’re free to come out of isolation.

Like with so much in this pandemic, people’s lives have been torn apart by politician’s tunnel vision decisionmaking.

Is it right to keep families apart for months, if not years, when the solutions are readily available?

It is a global problem, and I just hope that every government starts thinking more about the impact their decisions have on people’s lives.