Infectious diseases expert Dr Mike Tildesley said ministers need to use “slightly more measured language” to encourage people to ease out of lockdown rather than “flipping from one extreme to the other”, following Chancellor Rishi Sunak urging people to “get out there” once hospitality reopens.
Dr Tildesley, a member of the Spi-M modelling group which advises the Government, told Times Radio: “We need to be really careful with this, we had it similarly with the Eat Out To Help Out – there was a big switch last summer from ‘it is your duty to stay at home’ all of a sudden to it being your duty to go to the pub.
“I totally understand the need to reinvigorate the economy, but I think we need slightly more measured language here, to encourage people to do that, but to do it within the rules, to make sure that we observe social distancing.
“We all want to go back to normal, we all want to be in a situation – as we were prior to 2020 – where you can go to the pub and hug your mates and all these sorts of things that we used to do, but at the moment we need to be cautious about doing that.
“That’s why I worry a little bit about this sort of language of flipping from one extreme to the other, and I think we need to ease back into normality.”
