June 30, 2021: A scientific adviser to the government’s response to Covid 19 has warned that England could be in danger of repeating “last summer’s mistakes”.
Professor Stephen Reicher, from the University of St. Andrews and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) Behavioral Science subcommittee, said the government may have to re-impose sanctions if it leads to a resurgence of infections.
He told Times Radio: “My fear is that we are here to repeat the mistakes of last summer – if you remember, the Prime Minister told us that it is our patriotic duty to go to the pub. People go to work or they lose their jobs, we ‘ate food to help’. “The result was that we never had a shortage of infections to be able to deal with diseases, and so when conditions changed in the fall, when we went back to school and people went back to work and went back to universities and the weather got worse and we went inside, so infections spiked.
“This time, we need to learn from it and reduce the risk of infection where we can get to a much better place in the fall, where we don’t have to impose restrictions. So the real question is, how can we do this without hurting people so much?” Many of the bars and restaurants that reopened in July and August were forced to close when the UK entered its second national lockdown on November 5 after an increase in infections.
The rapid rise in cases in recent weeks has dashed hopes that the government’s sanctions will be lifted before the July 19 “target date”. Reicher added that the tests and traces were still not working properly or contacting people quickly, pointing to a lack of cooperation to keep people isolated.
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