Well, the Times today is calling for us going to a Sweden type approach-
on the lockdown...
"We must get on with it. As Professor John Ioannidis and Rohan Silva write for us today, draconian measures were justified when information on the spread of the virus was sparse and the NHS risked being overwhelmed, but a lockdown “is no longer a proportionate response, particularly given its profound negative impact: massive unemployment and increases in domestic violence, mental health problems and child abuse, as well as deaths caused by delayed or cancelled medical treatment.” The greatest constraints on personal and economic freedom in most people’s lifetime are taking their toll, and it is a considerable one.
This is what should happen. Rail operators have been asked to return to 80% of normal service by May 18, and that should be the date when the government sets a target for more than half of the labour force to be working as normal. It should not be difficult or risky.
One of the reasons the lockdown has had such a devastating impact on the economy is that more businesses than were required to do so closed their operations. Some, having revised their working practices to observe safe social distancing, have begun to return. More should be encouraged by the government to do so. Dates should be set for getting progressively higher proportions of employees back to work.
Schools should return after the spring half-term holiday, on June 1, and be put on notice to do so this week. That return can be phased, with different year groups going back first and with pupils returning for part of the week to allow smaller class sizes. But it should not be delayed. It is a long time until September, and if pupils do not go back to school soon, they are unlikely to return until that later date.
The government should also plan for a much wider opening-up of the country, by or before the time the schools are on holiday in the second half of July. Under Ireland’s exit plan, announced on Friday, people will be allowed to travel outside their region from July 20. The people of Britain recognise they will probably not be jetting off to Spain, Turkey or Greece this summer, but they, and the many businesses that depend on domestic tourism, should be allowed a staycation.
Pubs and restaurants should also be allowed a holiday season, or many will not emerge on the other side. Sweden, by relying on people to behave responsibly, has made this work. So can we, not least because the elderly and the vulnerable — those most at risk if they contract the virus — can avoid putting themselves in danger in bars and eateries. They can choose, voluntarily, to stay at home.
For everybody else, the government’s task is to encourage safe behaviour and an intelligent, risk-based approach. We know that despite the best efforts of scientists here and in other nations, a Covid-19 vaccine is some way off. Thus, as everyone understands, we will have to live with the virus for the foreseeable future.
When even scientists cannot agree whether we must stay two metres apart — the World Health Organisation and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control say one metre — there is a danger that people have absorbed too hardline a safety message. They now need to be carefully weaned off it.
That makes it even more important that the task now begins of preparing everyone for the phased removal of lockdown restrictions.
The great opening-up requires the comprehensive plan that the prime minister promised a few days ago, not a set of broad parameters. He must provide that plan this week."