Boris Johnson must be driven by data, not dates, in the weeks ahead

Editorial: With the Indian variant at large, progressing to or reversing each step of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown should be done with caution

(Dave Brown)

Such is the level of public and official disquiet about the latest unlock, it’s surprising that it hasn’t been reversed already. That may yet come. The data flow over the next few days and weeks will soon reveal whether this was indeed the moment to take what can be generously termed a calculated risk. A risk, nonetheless, that the prime minister is taking with other people’s lives.

If the hints emanating from former chief aide, Dominic Cummings, are anything to go by, it is not the first time in the history of this pandemic that Boris Johnson has rolled the dice and hoped for the best.

The truth is that the assessment of the risks posed by the more infective Indian variant may soon be revised by the scientists, and some, inside Sage and outside it, have concluded that this variant does massively alter the outlook for Covid-19.