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Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged Boris Johnson and delegate governments to take tougher action on the coronavirus now to allow family gatherings over Christmas, saying the UK cannot afford to be “behind” in its planning.
With Downing Street still debating whether it can ease restrictions for Christmas and what steps would be necessary to offset the resulting surge in infections, leading scientists said this approach would be a serious mistake.
Andrew Hayward, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at University College London and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), argued that if vaccines seem imminent, it would be “tragic” to undo the progress made in suppressing the virus. .
Gabriel Scally, an epidemiologist at the University of Bristol and a member of the unofficial Independent Sage group of scientists, was even more blunt in telling ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “It doesn’t make sense to have a very merry Christmas and then bury friends and relatives in January and February. We have to think very seriously about Christmas and how we are going to spend it ”.
Downing Street has said Johnson is “clear about his desire” for the families to be able to see each other at Christmas, and there have been predictions that permission for gatherings from various households will be granted during the holiday period.
Brown told Sky News that if this was the goal, action was needed now. “I discovered that to be prime minister you have to be two steps ahead of events. You can’t be behind the curve, ”he said. “You always have to be anticipating the next problem. And what you have to do, Boris Johnson, is to say, ‘Look, if there’s any question about whether we can ease the restrictions on Christmas, we have to act now.’
In another interview with Good Morning Britain, Brown said the government must “implement the measures now, in the next few days, that allow us to make a reasoned decision about what we will do in Christmas week.”
He added: “If he [Johnson] you are concerned that we may not have a Christmas break, you need to step up the measures now. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Boris Johnson have to come together and find a basis on which we can have common rules so that people can, if possible, travel to see their loved ones in different parts of the country. “
But Hayward, speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today show, questioned the premise of allowing older people to mingle with family members at a time of year when respiratory illnesses are most prevalent.
Speaking in a personal capacity, he said: “My personal opinion is that we are putting too much emphasis on having an almost normal Christmas. We know that respiratory infections peak in January, so adding fuel to the fire during Christmas can only contribute to this.
“We are on the cusp of being able to protect the older people we love through vaccination and it would be tragic to squander that opportunity and squander the gains we have made during lockdown by trying to get back to normal during the holidays. “
Hayward also expressed concern that the restrictions have been too changeable. “When policies swing from ‘staying home to save lives,’ ‘eating out to help,’ the tiered system, the second lockdown, and amnesty proposals on social distancing, it’s a very inconsistent message. Whereas, in fact, the things that people must do to stay safe and protect their loved ones are relatively simple. “
The current four-week lockdown in England will end on December 2 and ministers are expected to replace it with a strict system of tiered regional measures. A possible plan has been sent to some departments, but no decisions will be made before there is new data on the effectiveness of the national shutdown.
At a Downing Street briefing on Wednesday, Dr Susan Hopkins of Public Health England (PHE) said that for each day the restrictions were relaxed at Christmas, the measures would have to be tightened again for two more days. A later statement from PHE said that Hopkins was “wrong” and that modeling did indeed show that approximately five days of restrictions would be needed for each day of relaxation.
Johnson faces the ire of dozens of Conservative MPs who have warned that they will not accept that restrictions are relaxed for just a few days during the holiday period and that “freedom cannot be just for Christmas.”
