Why I Won’t Be Celebrating England’s ‘Freedom Day’
With the delta variant surging, it's a no-brainer to do everything personally possible to reduce the chances of catching Covid.
Too close for comfort
Photographer: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
On Monday, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is poised to lift almost all of the remaining restrictions imposed to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in England. Even as the delta variant drives a rebound in infections, the government is determined to get customers back into shops, diners back into bars and restaurants, people out and about. I’m going to skip the celebration.
For all of the claims that science would dictate the ebb and flow of restraints on civil liberties, the July 19 cessation of constraints, triumphantly called “Freedom Day,” seems entirely date-dictated rather than data-driven. According to Public Health England, weekly case numbers are back at levels last seen in January, with almost 144,000 people testing positive in the last week of June. Government scientific advisers are warning that lifting basic precautions next week could lead to as many as 200 Covid-19 deaths per day in August.