Thread by @althecat

This piece from @BBCRosAtkins, superbly elucidates a conundrum which all the world will face at some point. @BorisJohnson has chosen a libertarian perspective but this is not just about judgement. In the UK the @Conservatives chose to politicise covid controls following Trump.

https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1413818119609536515

Because of this there is a large political constituency for whom covid restrictions have become an evil, and these ideas have massive groundswell both in social media and among the general UK public.

In short Johnson has primed the pump for a covid explosion.

The consequences of this experiment in balancing the goal of achieving herd immunity through allowing infection vs the more recommended approach of slowing it as much as possible will be known soon.

Practically speaking the opening up is not due to start on July 19th, it’s already happened.

The @Conservatives have given a green light to the political constituency that they created and which supports them to behave irresponsibly, and they are already doing so.

Covid does not respect borders and the consequences of the venality that lies behind @BorisJohnson’s consistent decision making in this area will not only be felt in the UK.

Last September and October when the UK ignored the advice and let the Kent Variant run rampant they accelerated transmission not only in their own country but globally. The more recent decision to maintain air links to India, let the Delta Variant get out of control.

For this reason Europe and America should, rightly let the UK run it’s experiment in isolation until the results are clear. Ireland perhaps should also consider stronger precautionary travel measures.

The Britain of @BorisJohnson left Europe because it wanted to do its own thing, make its own decisions. And that includes making its own mistakes. They are entitled to do so. But the rest of the world is also entitled to shut the door to them until they come to their senses.

The global Covid Pandemic is still running rampant. Most of the world remains unvaccinated and will do so most likely for 12+ months at least, possibly much longer. A new wave of variants, possibly vaccine resistant, is inevitable.

Britain because it is heavily vaccinated, and other western nations with adequate vaccine availability have a special responsibility to try to eliminate the disease, because vaccine immune strains may be more likely to appear among populations with immunity.

To let the virus run rampant against medical advice, both local and international, is an act of public health vandalism of monumental selfishness and hubris. It runs the risk of prolonging the hold Covid has over the world for all of humanity.

The best we can hope for now from this nation ruled by boofheads in the midst of preparations for football celebrations which are likely to be a superspreader event of epic magnitude is that they come to their senses as soon as possible.