UK PM Boris Johnson's new Covid-19 gamble worries some scientists

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to reopen England’s economy from coronavirus lockdown on July 19, but if he does so, it won’t be without disquiet from some of the scientists whose advice he has followed thus far.

Despite one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, Britain is facing a new wave of Covid-19. Johnson is taking a gamble: rather than shutting the country down, he is aiming to live with the virus in what is a world-first test case of the ability of vaccines to protect from the Delta variant. 

Johnson has already delayed the so-called “freedom day” by four weeks to allow more people to get vaccinated, after warning that thousands more people might die because of the rapid spread of the more infectious variant.

But with more than 86 per cent of adults now having received a first dose and nearly two-thirds of adults fully vaccinated, Johnson has set July 19 as a “terminus” date for restrictions. Anne Cori, an Imperial College epidemiologist behind one of the models that informed Johnson’s initial decision to delay “freedom day”, said it was premature to declare that the country can live with rising cases. Another delay to removing restrictions would be beneficial, she told Reuters.