Re: Covid: Sage scientists called for short lockdown weeks ago
The American view:
Boris Johnson has split from his top scientists on coronavirus
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/13/u...gbr/index.html
There was a time when Boris Johnson claimed his government was following the science at every step of its plan for dealing with the coronavirus.
But as
the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK soars once more, and
the country braces for a long, miserable winter, the British Prime Minister appears to be at odds with those same advisers he once placed front and center of the pandemic response.
His Chief Medical Officer on Monday night poured a bucket of very cold water over his latest plans to tackle a worrying upturn in the spread of the coronavirus in the UK. And On Tuesday he was facing further criticism after it emerged that his group of top scientific advisers recommended three weeks ago a significantly tougher package of measures than even he now plans.
Johnson, it seems, is
trapped by his bitterly divided Conservative Party -- faced down by the
hawks, such as his finance minister Rishi Sunak, who want to keep the economy as open as possible and
doves, who think tough measures now would be better in the longer run.
His attempts to walk that tricky line were evident in a press conference on Monday evening. Instead of introducing a short, sharp "circuit breaker" lockdown,
advocated by experts who want to disrupt the current rate of transmission immediately and buy the country time before a difficult winter, Johnson outlined a three-tiered system of lockdown measures, to be applied locally according to the number of reported cases in a given area.
Even the top tier of these new restrictions is
a far cry from the hard lockdown that Johnson introduced in March. Children will still attend schools, restaurants will be allowed to remain open and it will be up to local authorities to decide whether other parts of the hospitality sector must close.
Of course, the USA has its' own problems with a leader who has overseen 8,093,600 COVID-19 infections and allowed 220,900 COVID-19 deaths .....
..... a view from abroad is, nevertheless, IMO, always welcome .....