Britain is facing six months of lockdown following a morning broadcast from No 10 Downing Street by Chief Government Scientist Patrick Vallance and Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty. The lockdown will be imposed on the much disputed theory that there are still only low levels of immunity to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the community, which can only be rectified by vaccination campaigns now deferred to next year.

In recent weeks the government have been ramping up fear of the virus by mass testing (~250 thousand tests a day) leading to what are most likely largely false positive results, while hospitalisation and death statistics remained static. Though it is true that hospitalisations and deaths have begun to increase (perhaps seasonally) there is little basis that COVID-19 deaths will reach near the same levels as in the spring (as Whitty is claiming), even supposing that data is reliable. More likely many will die because normal medical services are vastly reduced (they never recovered after the spring lockdown), and because many thousands people will be made jobless, homeless and destitute this winter, while the nation is plunged into ever greater everlasting debt with the complicity of all the main political parties.

Futhermore, even with contemptible acquiescence of most elected members of Parliament the government is acting illegally in imposing these measures on society as has been stated by retired senior judges Lord Sumption and Baroness Hale. The case against the government is now likely to reach the Court of Appeal towards the end of next month.