Calls to end Covid-19 curbs ‘are siren voices leading to lockdown’
A GOVERNMENT adviser has said calls from scientists and academics to end coronavirus restrictions are ‘wrong’ and ‘remarkably insular’.
Prof Stephen Reicher, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (Spi-B), spoke out after the group said Covid-19 ‘no longer requires exceptional measures of control in everyday life’.
In an open letter, the 22 signatories, who include Prof Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at University of Oxford and Prof Karol Sikora from the medicine school at the University of Buckingham – say mandatory face coverings, physical distancing and mass community testing should end no later than June 21.
The letter states: ‘It is more than time for citizens to take back control of their own lives.’
Step four of the government’s road map for England currently states that all legal limits on social contact will be removed by June 21 at the earliest, when restrictions on large events such as festivals should also ease.
Prof Reicher, from the University of St Andrews, responded: ‘We have heard from these people before, arguing that Covid isn’t a risk and that restrictions should be lifted. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.
‘Indeed, it seems remarkably insular to repeat the claim in a week where infections are their highest level ever worldwide and global deaths have passed the three million mark.’
He added: ‘The government delayed taking action in the autumn. Infections soared and we had to impose harsher restrictions for longer. Don’t let these siren voices lead us back into lockdown again.’
Yesterday, the UK Covid death toll rose by 11 and a further 1,712 positive cases were confirmed. Government data up to April 24 also showed that of the 46,253,754 jabs given in the UK so far, 33,666,638 were first doses – a rise of 142,215 on the previous day.
Some 12,587,116 were second doses, an increase of 498,430. Advisers say there is nothing in current data to suggest we will not be able to enjoy a relatively normal summer.