Sir Desmond Swayne appeared to epitomise the Conservative’s approach to the coronavirus pandemic during a Channel 4 News interview last night.
The MP for New Forest West called for the health and scientific lobby to be put back in its place, saying “they cannot go on telling us how to live our lives forever”.
The comments come as several national newspapers got behind Boris Johnson’s decision to resist growing pressure to scrap the easing of coronavirus restrictions over Christmas this morning.
The Mail splashed “Carry on Christmas!” as the Prime Minister shrugged off calls for a U-turn, while The Sun celebrated Johnson’s “fight to save Christmas” and The Telegraph warned it is “too late to cancel it”.
But health professionals say the relaxing of rules could overwhelm the NHS and contribute to the loss of “many lives”.
Yesterday the British Medical Journal and Health Service Journal published a rare joint editorial calling for the “rash” decision to relax social distancing measures over the festive period to be scrapped.
They said the Mr Johnson “is about to blunder into another major error that will cost many lives”.
“The Government was too slow to introduce restrictions in the spring and again in the autumn,” the joint editorial said.
“It should now reverse its rash decision to allow household mixing and instead extend the tiers over the five-day Christmas period in order to bring numbers down in the advance of a likely third wave.”
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