Thread by @Telegraph

🔴 Boris Johnson proposed giving over-65s choice on Covid shielding

The then PM’s misgivings about isolation revealed as he asked if the most vulnerable could be trusted to decide level of risk for themselves

🧵Thread 👇

#TheLockdownFiles
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…

🔵 While lockdown pressed pause on most Britons’ lives, those who were clinically “extremely vulnerable” were much more severely isolated - and for longer

🏠 “Shielding” guidance brought in during the very early days of the pandemic warned them not to leave their homes for any reason other than a medical appointment – not even for the one hour’s exercise then enjoyed by the rest of the country

🔴 For many, it had a grim effect on mental health – with more than a third of people who were shielding reporting a decline, according to research by the Office for National Statistics

But as these conversations show, even those who were involved in devising these measures seemed unsure whether their implementation was “effective”.

🗣 Boris Johnson wondered out loud if the Government should trust people to make decisions for themselves
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…

📰 In August 2020, Johnson spotted an article in The Spectator suggesting the way forward might be to “protect the elderly and other high-risk groups until they are protected by herd immunity, while the younger generations keep society afloat”

💬He sent the article to a Whatsapp group with key officials - this is the conversation that followed:
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…

💬telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…

📅 A few weeks later, Mr Johnson spotted another article – this time in the Financial Times.

It suggested that the mortality rate from Covid had recently fallen and the elderly were no longer the main drivers of the virus

Read the conversation he had with officials here⬇️
#TheLockdownFiles
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…