Government plan recklessly exposes millions of people in UK to infection, experts warn

Jul 19, 2021

The UK government’s latest pandemic plan is to recklessly expose millions of people to the acute and long-term effects of mass infection, experts at the BMJ are warning today.

A strategy that now chooses mass infection in young people over vaccination in order to achieve greater population immunity to protect vulnerable people in winter is “unethical and unscientific,” say Dr Deepti Gurdasani and his colleagues.

Instead of letting infections increase, they are urging the government to take urgent action to educate and protect the public and prepare for fall.

These include defining a long-term strategy for pandemic control, maintaining basic measures such as masks and physical distancing until cases return to low levels, investing in workplaces, schools and public transport to make them safer, and the provision of extensive testing and support for people to isolate themselves.

The Prime Minister’s argument that it is better to accept massive infection now than to postpone into winter, when “the virus has an advantage” is deeply flawed and misleading, they write. Instead, this strategy will place around 48% of the population (including children) who are not yet fully immunized, including those who are clinically vulnerable and those with weakened immune systems, at unacceptable risk.

This approach is already putting intense pressure on ailing health services and will lead to many preventable deaths and long-term illnesses, they add. It also provides a fertile environment for the selection of escape variants which could have huge consequences for the UK and countries around the world.

They point out that more than 1,000 scientists have already signed a letter to The Lancet explaining why allowing massive infection this summer is a “dangerous and unethical experiment”. The British Medical Association, Directors of Public Health, SAGE, Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Royal College of Nursing and NHS leaders have all highlighted the dangers inherent in allowing mass infection.

Opening up the UK further is touted as a ‘freedom day’, but for too many people removing mandatory measures such as wearing masks and physical distancing restricts rather than allowing freedom.

This, they say, is unlikely to boost public confidence and engagement in economic activity. And if the government’s strategy pulls us into further lockdown, they warn it could have an even more devastating impact on the economy.

Additionally, the public overwhelmingly supports sensible public health measures such as indoor masking. “This raises the question of why dangerous public health decisions that are neither in the public interest nor in accordance with public sentiment were made in the midst of a raging pandemic,” they write.