Reintroducing coronavirus measures such as mandatory face masks in indoor spaces and working from home would not be “problematic”, a scientist has said.
Professor Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: “I don’t think it’s a binary go for Plan B or nothing, it’s very clear that the measures that are in included in Plan B are sensible and not very disruptive.
“It’s not problematic to give clear leadership about the use of face masks, and working at home if you can is also not particularly disruptive for many people.
“Those measures are likely to lead to a pretty good reduction in the really unacceptable number of cases that we’ve got at the moment.
“To my mind, the introduction of vaccine passports is also fine – it’s been accepted very easily in most other western European countries.
“It’s very sensible, if you were going into a crowded indoor space and knew everyone there had been fully vaccinated and perhaps had had a rapid test on the day, you’d feel much more secure about going into that space.”
Prof Openshaw added: “What we’re facing at the moment is unacceptable we’ve got roughly 1 in 55 people infected, which is an astonishingly high rate compared to most other west European countries.
“This is connected with the lack of clear messaging about sensible measures that we should all be taking in order to reduce the spread of infection.”
