Here are the outstanding questions to be taken by the Prime Minister and the coronavirus strategy committee he chairs (CS) today about how far lockdown will be eased on 4 July and thereafter.
First, on socialising inside where we live; will we be allowed to meet with anyone we like indoors in groups of up to half a dozen, or will we be restricted to socialising with a single family or household of our choice with whom we would form a long-term ‘bubble’?
This is a choice between a rule more likely to be actually followed, namely the permission to mix with whomever we like so long as there are no more than six of us, versus a rule that the scientists believe is more likely to reduce the risk that the rate of viral transmission will increase dangerously again.
To put this in a nutshell, if the British people are now largely in a mindset to bend whatever rule is being set – and post the Barnard Castle eye test, they probably are – is it better to have a rule that is intrinsically more likely to limit viral transmission, than one that starts off being risky-ish and becomes very risky when bent?
If that is how Boris Johnson frames the decision, and I would expect it will be, then he will go for the two-household bubble.
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