Senior North East health figures have slammed the Government's plans to ditch self-isolation requirements for those with Covid-19 and to get rid of free testing - and said it amounts to a "giant experiment aimed at the poorer in society".
In Newcastle, Coun John-Paul Stephenson - the city council 's cabinet member with responsibility for public health called the Prime Minister a "muppet" and said the "disastrous changes will prove to be one of the biggest scandals of health inequalities of our generation".
Dr Paul Evans, chair of the Gateshead and South Tyneside Local Medical Committee (LMC) and a GP at the Bridges Medical Practice in Gateshead, echoed this, saying he had "grave concerns" about the position people in his community will be put in, and he said he feared for the impact on those who are clinically extremely vulnerable.
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On Monday, Boris Johnson announced that people would not need to self-isolate if they test positive from Thursday, and that the payments for those on low incomes who catch Covid-19 and cannot work would be scrapped.
Free lateral flow testing will also be ditched from April 1, and though the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) Covid-19 survey work will remain, it will be weakened.
Coun Stephenson said: "This Eton muppet shows complete contempt for ordinary people, and especially those in areas of high deprivation.
"Free universal testing will end on April 1 - that date is fitting for that complete fool, desperate to distract from the national shame of our Prime Minister being under police investigation for breaking his own rules. It’s not funny anymore.
"The loveable buffoon mask has fallen, and he's being seen for what he really is."
A Met Police investigation into the string of Downing Street parties understood to have taken place during lockdown continues.
The councillor said the changes would add to the cost of living crisis and added: "It’s all well and good for those who can afford to pay for LFTs, and can afford to be off work without Statutory Sick Pay.
"We are seeing the biggest cost of living crisis of a generation. Forcing impossible choices and more financial burdens on people when they are struggling to find money to heat their homes and feed their children is intentionally cruel."
Coun Stephenson also questioned how the removal of restrictions was going to support businesses, said people needed to remember Covid was not over, and urged the public to continue to follow "hands, face, space" guidance.
"People are still dying from it," he said. "Thankfully not in the numbers we have previously seen, but this is little consolation to those families are still losing loved ones. Don’t dismiss them – respect them.
"The Prime Minister says it’s time to give confidence back. Is that what he says to lemmings; so long as they walk over the cliff with confidence , it’s all good?
"But people are not lemmings. We demand respect."
Meanwhile, Dr Evans was one of hundreds of medics and scientists who signed an open letter to the Government's chief medical officer Prof Sir Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance demanding that that the Government authorities "shared the science" behind the controversial decisions.
Dr Evans said that following the Prime Minister's announcement to the House of Commons and an evening press conference featuring the two advisers he remained far from reassured.
"I have grave reservations about the changes that are being made and the Government's determination to essentially 'will Covid away' and to pretty much ignore the virus as much as possible," he told ChronicleLive.
"I've several objections, but fundamentally I don't think it's going to work. The virus mutates rapidly - and the ones we have seen cut through have not all been in sequence.
"The next mutation is likely to be more transmissible but we don't know if it's likely to be more or less dangerous. But what we do know is the depending on the day Omicron is still killing tens and hundreds of people.
"I fear that removing the restrictions is going to supercharge the next mutation of the virus and potentially make the UK a breeding ground for a new mutation. And if we're not testing for Covid, then we are not going to see this."
The British Medical Association which represents doctors nationwide has also come out against the changes - the organisation warned that scrapping restrictions was "premature and not based on evidence".
The top GP also raised concerns about the clinically vulnerable.
"We're also not going to know who's got Covid in a timely enough fashion to start them on antivirals.
"Antivirals are supposed to be started really promptly - especially for the vulnerable. The time it takes to deteriorate is only five to ten days.
"If we're not testing that would seem to put people at significant risk. These people have spent much of the last two years in fear of this virus - knowing that even if they're fully vaccinated they're at risk of catching something that could kill them."
Dr Evans said people who are vulnerable had been given a choice of living in self-imposed isolation or "simply taking their chances" and risking coming into contact with someone Covid-positive in public."
The doctor also shared Coun Stephenson's concerns around the impact of lifting restriction on deprived communities. He said: "My practice is in one of the poorer parts of Gateshead. Many of my patients are in low-paid or zero-hour style jobs. If they don't go to work, they don't get paid. They might live in cramped housing or with multiple generations of their family.
"Removing free testing from those people means they might not know if they catch Covid - and if it's a choice between putting food on the table or clothing their kids, or not going to work because they suspect they might have Covid, then they're going to do what they need to do to get paid.
"It feels like a giant experiment and one particularly aimed at the poorer in society."
On Monday, Boris Johnson dismissed concerns from opposition politicians that it was too soon to make these changes or that the vulnerable were being left behind.
He told a Downing Street press conference: "Today is not the day we can declare victory over Covid because this virus is not going away.
"But it is the day when all the efforts of the last two years finally enable us to protect ourselves whilst restoring our liberties in full.
"After two of the darkest, grimmest years in our peacetime history I do believe this is a moment of pride for our nation and a source of hope for all that we can achieve in the years to come."
Asked about the evidence his decision-making was based on, he said the data was "freely available", and pointed to falling numbers of Omicron infections.
On Monday, more than 38,000 positive Covid tests were registered across the UK.
The Prime Minister also refuted the idea that ditching free testing would add to the cost of living crisis, saying: "This change in the testing regime won't come through for a few weeks to come, by which time we hope and expect the incidence will have further declined.
"I hope that the impact on people will be minimal."
Answering questions alongside the Prime Minister, Prof Sir Chris Whitty said that the "public health advice" remained that "people should still if they have Covid try to prevent other people getting it and that means self-isolating."
