Potential winter lockdown 'unthinkable', says expert

A top public health expert branded the possibility of a winter lockdown “unthinkable” and reiterated calls to stop comparing Covid to flu.

Professor Devi Sridhar, chair of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University Medical School, stated on Twitter the new virus was “far more serious”.

She slapped down claims from Dr Susan Hopkins, strategic response director for Covid-19 at Public Health England, that a winter lockdown could be needed.

Another lockdown in winter would be unthinkable. We must get things in order now instead of accepting rises in hospitalizations & then lockdown as inevitable. The harms of lockdown are huge and we now have vaccines, testing, and isolation measures to avoid blanket restrictions. https://t.co/FYI4mNi8C4
— Prof. Devi Sridhar (@devisridhar) June 20, 2021

She wrote: “Another lockdown in winter would be unthinkable.

“We must get things in order now instead of accepting rises in hospitalisations and then lockdown as inevitable.

“The harms of lockdown are huge and we now have vaccines, testing, and isolation measures to avoid blanket restrictions. And the first step is to stop talking about Covid like it’s seasonal flu. It’s not.

“Flu doesn’t cause the hospitalisation numbers we have seen with Covid. Or number of deaths.”