Govt medical spokeswoman now saying lockdown will last at least 6 mths & may go on much longer.
The model Dr Harris proposed was that measures might be refined & relaxed marginally over time but without any period of normality ahead of 6 mths. But surely that can't be right! We have to be allowed out from time to time! What she described is even worse than the Sawtooth!!
Journalists asks Deputy CMO to confirm she means 6 mths lockdown. Unfortunately she waffles, saying she doesn't mean lockdown & then describes a situation of lockdown for 6 mths. Hopeless messaging.
The Deputy CMO also unfortunately gives the impression it might be all over in 6 mths (or perhaps even 3, in one sentence) but doesn't tell us how. Does she mean there'll be therapies? A vaccine? Somehow the virus randomly dies out? With no mechanism it's just a sky hook.
Chris Mason eventually translated for the Deputy CMO & I think he got it abt right. When she said no lockdown for 6 mths she meant not quite the same restrictions as now. But she does envisage continuous restrictions. The govt appears not to accept the Imperial College Sawtooth.
Even a Sawtooth wld be extremely hard to maintain. I cannot fathom how the govt imagines it cld maintain some tweaked, slightly moderated lockdown for 6 mths without even a month-at-a-time break! People simply won't comply.
The govt needs to clarify this urgently. If this crisis is to go on for 6 mths or even years, we need breaks at least every couple of months, where life is close to normal for a few weeks.
