Bill Harvey: Fly to the rainbow

As we hurtle towards the much-anticipated removal of restrictions in England introduced because of the pandemic, I think it is fair to expect a barrage of conflicting advice. Is England going to ‘learn to live with Covid’, as suggested by the newly installed and apparently libertarian Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, or is it a useful guinea pig for other countries as they catch up with vaccination rates and wish to avoid becoming a ‘variant factory,’ as suggested by one member of Sage?

We know that, in January of this year, Covid-19 was the top killer in the UK. In May, it was 26th on the list, way behind diseases associated with smoking, for example. We also know that some variants, such as Delta, have increased infectivity. This might not cause serious disease to someone vaccinated or young, but may promote future variants, some likely to have more serious impact.