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Sir Patrick wore a reusable mask for the session in Parliament
“There is absolutely no reason” to change the orientation on working from home, said the UK’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance.
Since the end of March, the government has advised people to work from home if possible to help curb the coronavirus.
But last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson noted a change and said, “I think we should now say, well, ‘go back to work if you can.'”
Sir Patrick said working at home was still a “perfectly good option” for many.
Speaking to the Commons science and technology committee, he said it was his opinion, and one shared by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), that distancing measures were still important to contain the virus.
“Of the various distancing measures, working from home for many companies remains a perfectly good option because it is easy to do,” he said.
“I think a number of companies think that it’s not really detrimental to productivity. And in that situation, there is absolutely no reason for me to change it.”
It occurs when the government continues to try to balance the economic and health risks of the pandemic.
When asked about Britain’s response to the virus, Sir Patrick said: “It is clear that the result has not been good in the UK, I think it can be absolutely clear about it.”
“There are many factors that are going to play into this as we look and say, ‘What is it that makes some countries do worse than others?’ And decisions will be made that will turn out to have been wrong. moment “.
In mid-March, Sir Patrick said it would be a “good result” for the UK if the number of deaths from the virus could be kept below 20,000.
The latest figures show that 45,119 people died after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK, an increase from 66 the day before.
Sir Patrick said the virus was “quite likely” to return “in different waves over several years,” but emphasized that the UK is still going through the first wave.
“When people talk about the second wave now, actually what I think they are really talking about is a first wave revival,” he said.
“All we have done is suppress the first wave and when you take the brakes off you would expect it to come back.”
It comes after a report, requested by the scientific adviser, suggested that the UK could see some 120,000 new coronavirus deaths this winter. This could be seen as “the end of the first wave yet,” he said.
‘Extreme behavior change’
During the session, Sir Patrick told parliamentarians that the government was advised to implement blockade measures sooner than they did.
In the run-up to closing, he said measures were taken to mitigate the virus, including the isolation of homes and the warning not to visit pubs and theaters that caused “quite extreme” behavior changes.
But he said that after the data suggested that the number of virus cases doubled every three days, Sage recommended, on either March 16 or 18, that the “rest” of measures to curb the coronavirus be introduced.
After speaking in the Commons, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “March 16 is the day I came to this House and said that all unnecessary social contact should cease, that is precisely when the shutdown began.” .
Labor MP Zarah Sultana said “advising people from a distance socially is not the same as imposing a confinement. That one-week delay could have cost thousands of lives.”
In June, former government adviser Professor Neil Ferguson said the number of deaths from coronavirus in the UK would have been cut in half if the blockade had been introduced a week earlier.
When did the blockade really start?
The start of the blockade generally dates back to the night of March 23, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the nation and people were told to avoid leaving the house and that all non-essential stores were closed.
In fact, Mr. Hancock previously said that was when the shutdown began.
In a debate in the Commons on June 2, he noted that daily death figures were “lower than at any other time since the closure began on March 23.”
BBC Health Correspondent James Gallagher said: “Key evidence came out on Monday March 16 that showed 250,000 people could die.”
“That night, the government advised people to avoid pubs and work from home if possible. Schools were told Wednesday that they would close at the end of the week.”
“On Friday, all indoor restaurants, pubs, clubs and sports and leisure facilities were ordered closed. The UK closed entirely the following Monday.”
Sir Patrick also said that it is not assumed that a coronavirus vaccine will be available in the immediate future, after encouraging early clinical trial results, hopes of finding one.
“We assume we won’t have it and when we get it, we’ll be delighted,” he said.
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