So much for coronavirus being over by Christmas. A starker reality has appeared

Editorial: The sobering words of the chief medical officer for England were a powerful corrective to the prime minister’s useless ‘boosterism’

Boris Johnson told us a fortnight ago we would be reverting to near normality by Christmas (AFP)

We have probably reached near the limits, or the limits, of what we can do in terms of opening up society.”

The sobering words of the chief medical officer for England were a powerful corrective to the prime minister’s useless “boosterism”. Like the excellent doctor he is, Chris Whitty took the view that the best thing in such difficult circumstances is to avoid offering false hope. Professor Whitty, absent from our screens for too long, was too diplomatic to add that Britain will not, as Boris Johnson told us a fortnight ago, be reverting to near normality by Christmas. This is due to trends in the newly locked-down areas in the north of England, and in infection rates nationally and globally going in the wrong direction.

Before much longer, shorter days and cooler temperatures in the northern hemisphere will most likely exacerbate the spread of the virus. Certain planned relaxations, such as opening up sports stadiums, are being postponed; restrictions on families and friends meeting indoors are being reimposed from Manchester to Bradford. Face coverings will be mandatory in more indoor environments, such as places of worship. The Scottish government has even gone as far as strongly advising against travel to and from the affected areas.

Mr Johnson, who was once an eccentric sort of motoring correspondent for GQ magazine, presented the changes as if he was taking his advanced driving test. The government was just “squeezing the brake”, and gently adjusting its progress as “a warning light on the dashboard” lit up. To extend the metaphor, the government has been driving erratically, moving dangerously slowly into initial lockdown, falling asleep at the wheel, then dangerously speeding as lockdown was relaxed – and now slamming the brakes on. If the machinery of British government is still to be thought of as a Rolls-Royce, then it needs a better chauffeur.

Other countries, including in the British Isles, have steered a better course through the same terrain. Some lessons are now being learned. Leicester’s experience, for example, highlights the value of acting quickly on changes in the data. That city had to endure 11 days of dither until things got so bad that a full lockdown had to be imposed, with inadequate financial and public health support from central government. This time, action was taken more quickly, hopefully thus avoiding more draconian measures. More widely the government appears to be making much better preparations on protective gear and ventilators, and has placed impressive-sounding orders for vaccines.

Yet even now, doubts remain. If it is family groups and young people who have pushed infections higher, then why will they obey the new guidance more faithfully than the old guidance? Who is going to supervise the new measures, locally and nationally? Mr Johnson says the police will be keeping us in check; we shall see.

The greatest unanswered question, especially for the semi-locked down north as the furlough scheme starts to wind down, is what financial support will be forthcoming? If lockdown is reimposed, partly or fully, in any particular area as a matter of public health policy, then logically so should the furlough and allied schemes be restored as a principle of economic policy. Maybe Rishi Sunak will pop up somewhere, without warning, to tell us this is indeed so. It would be a more welcome surprise.