Infections will increase again

From: Lee Allane, De Cham Avenue, St Leonards on Sea
Boris Johnson makes his announcement at Downing Street on MondayBoris Johnson makes his announcement at Downing Street on Monday
Boris Johnson makes his announcement at Downing Street on Monday

Boris Johnson’s decision to ‘irreversibly’ remove all Covid restrictions on the 19th July is an act of supreme folly that, unless we are very lucky, will lead not only to more unnecessary deaths and misery but also continuing damage to the economy.

Flexibility in the face of changing circumstances is essential to our survival and no responsible government should even contemplate removing the option of changing its strategy in response to a constantly mutating virus that may at any moment produce a more transmissible, virulent or vaccine-resistant variation.

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Viruses have one simple agenda – survive, multiply and adapt when necessary – and by refusing to modify its response to these adaptation, the UK Government will have finally confirmed that not only has Johnson’s entire stewardship of the pandemic been a heady mix of recklessness and incompetence, but also that viruses are smarter than politicians.

I agree that we need to restart all sectors of the economy, but we need to do it in a way that is sustainable over the longer term and not, as in previous lock downs, make the mistake of opening up too quickly only to be forced to reimpose even more draconian restrictions when infections begin to spiral out of control.

Johnson has put all his eggs into the vaccination basket and continues to ignore the fact that, as effective as the vaccination programme has been, it will never provide complete protection. A small but significant number of those fully vaccinated (5-10%) may still catch and pass on infections, large sections of the population (particularly in certain areas) have yet to receive their jabs and others either can’t or won’t be vaccinated. If we add the inevitable increase in the estimated two million people, including children, who are currently suffering from the devastating and expensive effects of Long Covid, the prospect of a smooth and successful transition out of lockdown don’t look nearly as rosy as our politicians would have us believe.

Johnson has now effectively washed his hands of all responsibility for managing the pandemic and delegated all decision making to a matter of ‘personal choice’. I can’t speak for others but my personal choice is to ignore government advice and treat anything that emanates from Johnson’s mouth as a really stupid idea or the exact opposite of whatever he said ten minutes before.

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