Last month, Boris Johnson argued that the downward trends in Covid cases and hospitalisations meant that it was time to scrap restrictions. Now both are rising. But the government is ending testing and most surveillance studies. Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said that the rise was “to be expected” – though this foresight did not extend to having a plan to deal with the increase in infections. Instead, he dismissed the concern about the new Deltacron variant. The health secretary seemed nonchalant about the threat the virus now posed.
Mr Javid may be right that the country has weathered the worst of the pandemic, but Covid is not yet in retreat. The Treasury’s penny-pinching means that the UK is abandoning essential defences. It makes no sense to withdraw funding from a series of studies that allow the spread of the virus to be mapped in detail. Without the data, experts won’t be able to effectively monitor the disease. The country will be less effective in responding and adjusting to future waves of infection. Individuals will be less able to make informed choices about the risks involved. The clinically vulnerable face being cut off from everyday life. “It is like turning off the headlights at the first sign of dawn,” Stephen Reicher, a psychologist at the University of St Andrews, told the Guardian. “You can’t see what’s coming and you don’t know when it makes sense to turn them on again.”
