We now know so much more about the virus. But we are failing to act on the knowledge
All the signs are that Boris Johnson will this week unveil a winter plan for Covid. Already, coronavirus deaths are running at around 1,000 a week, and the numbers of hospital admissions are growing slowly but steadily. Staff are exhausted and the outlook for the autumn and winter cannot be regarded as anything other than unsettled, uncertain and potentially very dangerous.
The government and its senior officials claim Covid should be regarded as similar to influenza and that we have to “learn to live with it”. This worryingly persistent and flawed approach ignores the hazardous and evolving nature of the virus. Perhaps the worst manifestation is the UK’s three-month delay in using the approved vaccines to protect children aged 12 to 15. Last week, Dr Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Biden, gave a lecture to a UK public health society. He strongly backed the US policy of fully vaccinating young people for three reasons. First, children spread the virus; second, we see cases of severe Covid disease in the young; and third, we don’t know the long-term effects of infection in children. With European regulatory approval for a vaccine for children aged five to 11 expected next month, the government will soon face another decision-making challenge.
