Politics

‘Will the public be asked to wear face masks in public?’ This is a topic of debate today for the government’s SAGE committee of scientific advisers. Although the government dismissed the idea early on in the coronavirus pandemic, many other countries have since changed their own advice in support of them (read Dr John Lee’s analysis of the medical evidence here). Chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance has recently suggested they could play a role in stemming infection: The evidence on masks is much more persuasive for masks stopping you giving it to somebody than it is for preventing you catching it. We have a review ongoing at the moment on the evidence

Last week’s report from the Office for Budget Responsibility made waves with its latest economic scenario, estimating a 35 per cent collapse in GDP in the second quarter of the year. But could even that dire prediction have been too optimistic? While the downturn was estimated by the OBR to be sharp, so too was the economy bounce-back, creating a V-shaped recovery and quick economic improvement. But internal Treasury assessments revealed by the Times today predict a U-shape recovery: a longer, more painful return to the status quo. In both scenarios, the millions made unemployed by the Covid-19 lockdown take longer to return to work than the economy does to technically

The science of epidemiology relies a lot on modelling because, for obvious reasons, controlled experimentation would be unethical. But in the case of Covid-19 we do have something approaching a real-life experiment – in that Sweden has declined to follow other European countries into lockdown. Instead, it has followed a policy which might be summed up as social distancing-lite. Gatherings of more than 50 people have been outlawed, closing theatres and putting an end to sports events. But children up to the age of 16 are still attending school, shops and restaurants are still open – albeit with rules preventing people standing up at the bar – and no police

Boris Johnson has been out of action for almost a fortnight. His last meaningful act before going into hospital was to force frazzled Health Secretary Matt Hancock to ditch a threat to ban outdoor exercise that he’d made live on TV in response to some tweeted pictures of people sunbathing in a park. In place of that threat, Johnson’s Downing Street changed the tone by sending out a message telling the British public ‘thank you, thank you, thank you’ for their efforts. Though the Government initially claimed Mr Johnson would work on his red boxes and receive briefings while in hospital, this did not actually happen (no doubt due to