• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Politics

Scientific adviser tells Govt: Stop flip-flopping between incentives and closures

Professor John Edmunds called for a long-term strategy when it comes to balancing the economy and the pandemic.

Jack Peat by Jack Peat
2020-11-15 08:41
in Politics
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

Encouraging the public to visit bars and restaurants and then closing hospitality due to a spike in Covid-19 cases is not a “sensible way to run the epidemic”, a Government scientific adviser has said.

Professor John Edmunds, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), urged a long-term strategy when it comes to balancing the economy and the pandemic.

It comes as Professor Andrew Pollard, who led the Oxford University and AstraZeneca trial, told The Sun his team were “optimistic” tens of millions of doses of UK-made coronavirus vaccines can start being produced by the end of the year.

Current national lockdown measures in England mean venues such as pubs, bars and restaurants have been forced to close, but are expected to be allowed to reopen when the restrictions lift.

“Flip-flopping”

Prof Edmunds raised concerns about “flip-flopping” between incentives, such as Eat Out To Help Out, and closures.

“We need to take a long-term view and be sensible and realise that we’re going to have to have restrictions in place for some time,” he told the PA news agency.

“Yes, we can lift them when it’s safe to do so, which will be primarily when large numbers of people have been vaccinated.

RelatedPosts

Andrew Pierce hails ‘Liz the lioness’ following new poll results

Keir Starmer reveals what he earns in blunt Sky News interview

Trump comments come back to haunt him

Levelling downstream? Tories float idea of ‘Great Boris Canal’ to ship water from north to the south

“But flip-flopping between encouraging people to mix socially, which is what you’re doing by encouraging people to go to restaurants and bars, versus then immediately closing them again, isn’t a very sensible way to run the epidemic.”

Under current plans, a regional tiered system is set to replace the national lockdown when it ends on December 2.

Prof Edmunds, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said it was “too early to judge” if this was too soon to lift the current restrictions.

But he said a return to the lowest alert level of the regional tier system, Tier 1, when the lockdown ends would be “very unwise”.

“It wasn’t a very well thought through strategy”

“The problem with the tier system is Tier 1 doesn’t do much at all, Tier 2 probably has some effect, but not a great deal, and Tier 3 seems to be able to hold the epidemic,” he said.

“The problem with the tier system is that inevitably you end up with quite a lot of places with high incidence under those circumstances.

“Because the Tier 1 and Tier 2 ones just eventually drift up into Tier 3 with a high incidence, and then Tier 3 holds it there.”

He added: “It wasn’t a very well thought through strategy, frankly.”

It comes after the Government said a further 462 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Saturday.

As of 9am on Saturday, there had been a further 26,860 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, slightly down from 27,301 on Friday.

George Pascoe-Watson

The updated numbers come as the Sunday Times reported former journalist George Pascoe-Watson, the chairman of lobbying firm Portland Communications, served as an adviser to a health minister for six months “before sending sensitive information on lockdown policy to paying clients”.

The paper said that, on October 15, he emailed Portland clients to say he had been “privately advised” restrictions in London launched that day would continue until spring 2021, before adding: “Decision-makers have told me personally.”

Mr Pascoe-Watson said in a statement provided to the PA news agency he had stepped down from his unpaid role with the Department of Health and Social Care by mutual agreement on October 7.

He added: “The information shared with clients on October 15 and 29 was in no way connected to the Test and Trace calls, in which I was no longer a participant.”

Meanwhile, Labour has called for emergency legislation to “stamp out dangerous anti-vax content” following promising preliminary results from the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

The opposition claimed dedicated anti-vaccination groups with hundreds of thousands of members on social media are “churning out disinformation” on the issue.

Related: Revealed: The real reason Dominic Cummings was sacked

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Shocking footage appears to shows fox being savaged to death by pack of hunt hounds

‘There are no deliveries because of Brexit,’ supermarket worker reveals

Labour broke equalities law, EHRC antisemitism report finds

Kids can skip quarantine and expensive tests, but only if they live in the UK

Daily Mail concludes that Royal trouble in Caribbean is the fault of…. Meghan Markle

Hindu and Jewish women marry in Britain’s first interfaith lesbian wedding

Parliamentary Sketch 3rd June – Sepp aside for the really power hungry

Trump refuses to condemn teenager accused of killing protesters in Kenosha

Brexit Digging up Ghosts of Britain’s Past

Incredible real-life hobbit house in Yorkshire up for sale

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.