Professor Neil Ferguson, who has been dubbed ‘Professor Lockdown’, as a result of his prediction of 500,000 UK coronavirus deaths has stated that the extra cases added to the UK’s tally following a catch up of cases Excel paints a ‘sobering’ national picture.
Professor Ferguson, who resigned as a government scientist in May after it emerged he had broken lockdown rules to see his married lover, has said it was not clear that the government could contain the virus while keeping children in secondary schools. Ferguson’s proposed suggestions are for the wider population to ‘give up more’ to keep children in education. These restrictions could include bars and restaurants shutting altogether.
Professor Ferguson appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning and said that the addition of 16,000 missed cases meant there was a ‘slightly more sobering sense of where the epidemic is in the UK than we had late last week. We think that infections are probably increasing, doubling over two weeks or so. In some areas faster than that, maybe every seven days in some areas slower’.
During the interview, Ferguson went on to say ‘While we don’t think primary schools are a major vector of transmission, older teenagers do transmit the virus. We don’t yet know whether we can control the virus with high schools open. I’m certainly not one to say we should close schools. It was highly disruptive for children’s education and social wellbeing. But we just have to accept that in other areas we might have to give up more in order to keep them open’.
When asked if that meant closing pubs altogether, he replied: ‘Indeed. We see from data collected by the government that if you look at the risk factors for becoming a case in the last few weeks attending bars and hospitality venues is a risk’.
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Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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