The UK currently has no plan to eliminate coronavirus from our shores. Lockdown will minimise contacts and protect the NHS. Rapid distribution of vaccines will protect the vulnerable, until all adults receive the vaccine in the longer term. Then we can treat the virus like seasonal flu, with booster doses to protect against new variants. At Monday’s press briefing, the deputy chief medical officer for England, Jonathan Van-Tam, confirmed as much.
So the national strategy has not changed. In early February 2020, UK advisers on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), against World Health Organization advice, took the view that coronavirus, like influenza, could not be stopped. Ignoring UK coronavirus experts and effective country responses in Asia, they followed the rulebook for pandemic influenza.
The following month, they suspended any attempt to eradicate the virus with test, track and trace. “It’s important to recognise that it’s not possible to stop everybody getting it, you can’t do that,” Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, told a press briefing, “it’s also not desirable because you want immunity in the population … to protect ourselves in the future”.......................
