THE GOVERNMENT needs to reconsider its ‘dangerous and unethical’ plans to end all coronavirus restrictions on July 19, scientists and doctors have warned.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced this week life would go back to some form of normality, but over 100 scientists have signed a letter claiming the governments plan is ‘illogical’.
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Cases are still rising in the UK and while vaccines do help protect against serious illness and death, people are still ending up in hospital with the virus.
Britain today recorded 32,548 daily Covid cases – the highest figure since January and deaths have increased by 33, bringing the total to 128,301.
It marks the highest increase in cases since January 23 when 33,522 infections were recorded.
And it’s a 100 per cent increase on the 16,135 infections reported two weeks ago. A total of 4,990,916 Brits have now been infected.
While cases have doubled in two weeks, hospitalisations have remained low – with another 386 people admitted in the past 24 hours.
In a letter in the Lancet, scientists and doctors claim the government’s strategy of mass infection to a point when only half the UK population is fully vaccinated will entail ‘both acute and long-term illness’.
They say that any strategy that ‘tolerates high levels of infection is both ‘unethical and illogical’.
The government’s plan will see the rest of the hospitality industry being opened up with venues such as nightclubs being allowed to once again welcome customers.
Amongst the risks highlighted, signatories say issues such as long Covid and the number of younger people who have still not been vaccinated is an issues.
The approach put forward by the government, the experts warn, ‘will be felt for decades to come’.
Dr Deepti Gurdasani, an epidemiologist and senior lecturer at Queen Mary University who organised the letter said: “The government has made a deliberate choice to expose children to mass infection, rather than protect them in schools or vaccinate them.
“This is unethical and unacceptable. Our young have already suffered so much in the past year, and are now being condemned to suffer the consequences of this dangerous experiment.”
European counterparts have also said that Britain is setting a ‘negative example’ to the rest of the world, by unlocking when infections are so high.
Professor Isabella Eckerle, a virologist and co-head of the Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases at the Geneva University Hospitals and the University of Geneva said the unlocking it would provide an ‘open door’ for the emergence of new variants.
The group is holding a press conference tomorrow and a number of MPs will also be attending the summit.
Dr Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, said: “Contrary to the statements of government scientists, there is no scientific consensus over the government’s current plans to remove protective mandates on July 19. Instead, there is deep disagreement.
“Many scientists are sincerely concerned that with sub-optimal double-vaccination numbers and rapidly rising transmission rates, we are at a very dangerous moment in the pandemic.
“Removing mandates on July 19 will not only accelerate virus transmission, with substantial increased levels of acute illness, hospitalisation, and long Covid, but also create the conditions for the emergence of new variants that could escape vaccine protection.
“The government plan is not, as some have characterised it, a reasonable gamble—it is an entirely unnecessary and self-inflicted hazard that will cause real harm to health.”
