Freedom Day two years on

It feels like longer but it's been two years since all Covid restrictions were removed in England. Most of Europe continued with various restrictions for months afterwards and some went into lockdown the following winter. Say what you like about Boris Johnson, but he got those big calls right.

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In a letter to the Lancet, a group of self-proclaimed experts condemned “Freedom Day” (as it was dubbed by the press) as “unethical and illogical”. The signatories, which included the perennial Zero Covid advocates Stephen Reichter, Susan Mitchie, Martin McKee and Gabriel Scally, wrote: “We believe the government is embarking on a dangerous and unethical experiment”. In the British Medical Journal, many of the same academics called the lifting of restrictions “a terrible mistake” and described the new focus on personal responsibility as “an abdication of the government’s fundamental duty to protect public health”.

“I can’t think of any realistic good scenario to come out of this strategy,” said Julian Tang, a clinical virologist at the University of Leicester. “I think it’s really a degree of how bad it’s going to be.” “Allowing infections to run amok in the country is a dangerous mistake”, said Stephen Griffin of Leeds University, while his Independent Sage colleague Christina Pagel said: “It feels really surreal (and not in a good way) to be living in a country that is actively trying to infect young adults and children with Covid.” Robert West, a nicotine addiction expert married to Susan Mitchie, said that telling people to behave responsibly was “like putting someone out on the road without having taught them to drive.”

In the Guardian, Polly Toynbee called it “calamitous health policy misjudgment.” In the same newspaper, Dr Rachel Clarke said that she was “disgusted” by “the government’s decision to pour petrol on Covid numbers.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer called it “a reckless free for all” and said that the government “urgently needs to change course [and] drop plans to lift all restrictions”. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said Boris Johnson had “got it wrong” with his “gamble” and called for mask-wearing to remain mandatory.