RE: Lockdown till May!!!17 Feb 2021 13:14
On the BBC today, a rather different view
The current data on vaccinations and hospital admissions is pointing to "earlier unlocking", a leading scientist says.
Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, told MPs on the Science and Technology Committee: "The vaccination rollout is, I think, exceeding most people's expectations, it's going very well."
He added: "The transmission blocking potential is key. But so, of course, is its actual ability to protect against death and disease, and to keep people out of hospital, and those numbers are looking really good.
"My conclusion from that is if you're driven by the data and not by dates, right now, you should be looking at earlier unlocking."
Prof Woolhouse, who is a member of the government's Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, also said he did not expect a surge in cases when schools reopened.
"There is a case, certainly for children under 16 up to 15, that having them in school does not make such a big contribution to the R number that we couldn't consider lifting it in the reasonably near future," he said.