On Covid, No10 is treating the public like fools
Every cryptic statement and irrational lockdown measure erodes trust in the Government’s position
15 April 2021 • 6:00am
It’s a process we have become wearily used to. Within minutes of Boris Johnson’s eye-popping claim that the plummeting rates of Covid hospitalisations and deaths since January “have not been achieved by the vaccination programme” but instead are overwhelmingly thanks to the lockdown, the internet was awash with confusion and dismay.
First came the scientists, pointing out that the Prime Minister’s odd assertion was hard to back up with evidence. The fact that the overwhelming majority of people in vulnerable groups (collectively representing 99 per cent of deaths) has now had at least one vaccination must surely have something to do with the falling death rate; and those 32 million vaccinated people must also have something to do with the reduction in transmission. Epidemiologist Tim Spector concluded the Prime Minister was “living in a different world.”