Boris Johnson steps up plans to tackle coronavirus as criticism rises | Voice of america

Prime Minister Boris Johnson to step up government action this week to slow the spread across Britain of the potentially deadly coronavirus by speeding up plans to keep the elderly at home for months and whole families self-quarantine when a family member has COVID-19 symptoms.

The acceleration of the new social distancing rules planned marks Johnson's third policy reversal in the past four days. The move comes after hundreds of scientists accused the government in an open letter of risking far more lives than necessary by delaying the introduction of more restrictive social distancing measures.

They urge the government to close access points to viruses, close schools and order the stopping of flights from other countries affected by the epidemic, such as the epidemic ; have made other European countries and the United States.

According to his critics, Johnson bases the strategy of Britains COVID in part on the theory of collective immunity. Scientific advisers said last week that there was little that the government could do to prevent the spread of the virus, and that the best way to protect the public from the virus in the long term was for most people to get it. , while protecting the elderly and vulnerable against viruses. catch the coronavirus.

Once about 60% of the population has had the disease, thus becoming theoretically immune to re-infection, it will provide some protection to those who are not immunized because the virus spreads much more slowly or can just disappear.

The priority of governments, on the contrary, is to try to slow the rate of spread of COVID-19 to prevent the public health system from being overwhelmed. The strategy of collective immunity is defended by Johnsons chief scientific advisor Patrick Vallance, and has become the subject of an increasingly heated debate, its critics claiming that it is out of step with the foreclosure strategies adopted by Britains' European neighbors.

Vallance told British broadcasters last week how a majority of the country's population of over 65 million people should be infected with the coronavirus to minimize the risk of future widespread epidemics. Speaking on BBC radio on Friday, he said: Our goal is to try to reduce the peak, widen the peak, not to remove it completely; also, because the vast majority of people contract a mild illness, to develop some sort of collective immunity so that more people are immunized against this disease and we reduce transmission.

But many infectious disease experts say it is not certain that those who were infected once actually gain immunity against it or any other future COVID-19 strain. Several cases have been recorded in China and Japan where people were re-infected after recovering from having contracted the virus for the first time. They warn that following a collective immunity approach would mean accepting that more than 40 million people will need to contract the disease and that even with a low mortality rate of 1%, it would likely mean 400,000 deaths.

They also say that Johnsons scientific advisors are too pessimistic about the chances of developing a vaccine quickly.

The government is playing roulette with the public, said Richard Horton, editor of Britains The Lancet, a weekly peer-reviewed medical journal. We need immediate and firm policies of social distancing and closure, he tweeted. Other critics have compared Vallance to Dr. Strangelove, the character in the 1964 Stanley Kubricks black comedy film satirizing Cold War fears of a nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States .

The British government has inexplicably chosen to encourage the flames, with the misconception that it will be able to control them, says William Hanage, epidemiologist at Harvards Chan School of Public Health. He says that he and his colleagues assumed that reports on British politics were a satire, an example of the ironic humor for which the country is famous. But they are far too real.

Under a barrage of criticism, UK Health Minister Matt Hancock distanced the government from the Vallances herd immunity strategy on Sunday, saying the government's plan is based on the expertise of scientists world renowned and that herd immunity is not one of them. It is a scientific concept, not a goal or a strategy. Our goal is to protect the life of this virus, our strategy is to protect the most vulnerable.

He said the government would take drastic measures to fight the virus, including telling manufacturers to rely on war bases, ventilators and other health equipment to cope. He said the health service has about 5,000 ventilators, but that he will need much more than that.

Our generation has never been tested like this, he added. Plans include preparing the elderly and vulnerable to stay at home, perhaps as long as four months, banning large gatherings, preparing the army to deploy to guard supermarkets and hospitals , and the cancellation of elective surgeries. He said Sunday that the government is also not closing the closure of non-essential bars, restaurants and shops. The British government plans to buy beds in private hospitals to help public hospitals.

Opposition politicians and some prominent conservatives, including Hancocks' predecessor as Minister of Health, Jeremy Hunt, are not reassured. They are asking to see the disease data and modeling that the government is using to inform its approach and say that the differences between Vallance and Hancock on what the strategy is based would suggest that Johnsons has no clear plan, despite public assurance at a press conference last week that it does.

Policy reversals also arouse public nervousness, suggest opinion polls, with 47% saying the government needed to do more. Johnson and his advisers on Thursday rejected the idea that it was necessary to ban mass gatherings, saying it was not necessary at this point. Prohibiting large crowds would not have a great effect on slowing down the transmission of COVID-19, said Vallance.

But within hours, most of the major sports authorities, including those that govern football and rugby, have suspended all matches. After that, government ministers turned around and started telling reporters that mass gatherings would, after all, be banned from next week. The government has also initially indicated that nationwide municipal elections will be held next month, only to reverse itself and announce that they will be postponed.

Critics have also been voiced against the government's decision to delay counseling regarding the home stay. Hancock told Britains Sky News on Sunday that the government did not want to act too soon and lock up life because fatigue would set in and people could not keep it going. It is not an easy thing to do for people, it is not an easy thing to maintain for people. But the bottom line is that we have to be ready, he said.

But former Conservative Minister Rory Stewart says the government should not delay action. He called for the schools to be closed. Evidence from other pandemics shows that closing schools and large rallies sooner than later will stop the peaks of this type of disease, he said.

Some epidemiologists agree that the British government should not delay the increase in restrictions. Social distancing has worked in China, Singapore and other countries, says Alan McNally, professor of evolutionary microbial genomics at Britains Birmingham University.

Other disease experts, however, are supporting the pace of action by governments. According to Michael Head, epidemiologist at Britains Southampton University, the restrictions will only work if there is a high level of public compliance. You won't get this over a long period of time, he says.