The crisis facing hospitals is truly awful and cannot be understated. But while the short term situation is grim, it is important that we detach the immediate challenges from the post-vaccine outlook. They are radically different landscapes and must be addressed separately.
Before enough people are vaccinated against Covid-19, we can’t pull any punches in cracking down on the virus. This is not just because of the increased transmissibility of this new variant, or the huge challenges facing the NHS, but because with the vaccine being rolled out we are so close to success against this awful virus.
The lower the infection rates, the sooner we can relax restrictions properly. So it is in all our interests to do everything we can to suppress infections rates now.
No one wants them, but draconian measures for a shorter period are preferable to looser restrictions for longer. Once the vaccine is sufficiently rolled out, this means that, once infections are brought down, then it will be easier to keep down infection and death rates.
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