In a letter signed by some of the UK's most reputable scientists, the government is being urged to lift all COVID-19 restrictions in order to allow people to regain their freedom and control of their lives.
Discover our latest podcast
Living in fear no longer
The open letter stresses the importance of allowing a society to thrive and not live in fear of a 'single cause of ill-health' and that the government's roadmap out of lockdown should not be altered to be rescheduled for later dates should there be further developments in the pandemic. The letter starts off by saying:
We are being told simultaneously that we have successful vaccines and that major restrictions on everyday life must continue indefinitely. Both propositions cannot be true. We need to give more weight to the data on the actual success of the vaccines and less to theoretical risks of vaccine escape and/or surge in a largely vaccinated population.
Exceptional measures to control everyday life
Even more, the scientists—representing a wide variety of disciplines from across different universities including Robert Dingwall from Nervtag, the government's new and emerging virus task force and Professor Carl Heneghan from Oxford University's Evidence Based Medicine Centre—also believe that there is no need for vaccine passports as is being planned at the moment.
Instead, they claim that the virus no longer poses a threat big enough to warrant the need of 'exceptional measures of control in everyday life. The letter continues:
All consideration of immunity documentation should cease. It is time to recognise that, in our substantially vaccinated population, Covid-19 will take its place among the 30 or so respiratory viral diseases with which humans have historically co-existed.
And finishes off saying:
For most vaccinated and other low-risk people, Covid-19 is now a mild endemic infection, likely to recur in seasonal waves which renew immunity without significantly stressing the NHS. Having endured the ravages of 2020, things are very different as we enter the spring of 2021. It is more than time for citizens to take back control of their own lives.
