Brighton masks
© Adam Gerrard / Daily MirrorAn unusually quiet North Street in Brighton City Centre
A full UK lockdown is needed to prevent an early 2021 'catastrophe', a Government scientist has warned.

Andrew Hayward, professor of infectious diseases epidemiology at University College London, warned the country was "entering a very dangerous phase of the pandemic" and said "decisive" action was needed.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme Professor Hayward said: "I think we are entering a very dangerous new phase of the pandemic and we're going to need decisive, early, national action to prevent a catastrophe in January and February.

"A 50% increase in transmissibility means that the previous levels of restrictions that worked before won't work now, and so Tier 4 restrictions are likely to be necessary or even higher than that.


Comment: If the lockdowns 'worked before' why are more and harsher ones needed? Either the advisor is dangerously stupid or maliciously deceptive, both should disqualify him from any position of influence.


Hayward
Professor Andrew Hayward said "decisive" action is needed
Professor Andrew Hayward said "decisive" action is needed

"I think we're really looking at a situation where we're moving into near lockdown, but we've got to learn the lessons from the first lockdown."

He added the rise in cases was "very largely driven" by the new, more infectious variant of coronavirus, and suggested that allowing pupils to return to schools would mean stricter restrictions in other areas of society.


Comment: The rise in cases is clearly driven by faulty, mass testing - on a scale the UK has never before seen - because, otherwise, the vast majority who are 'asymptomatic', better known as HEALTHY, wouldn't know they had it and there wouldn't be 'cases' to speak of.


Prof Hayward added: "We've had control measures that were previously controlling the old variant are not enough for this variant.

"And so if we want to control the new variant we are going to need much tighter restrictions."


Comment: Again, if the previous lockdowns didn't control the old variant, why would the new lockdown be guaranteed to control transmission of the new, more infectious - and most likely even more harmless - variant? Either way, the lockdowns are doing more damage than the harmless virus ever could so this call to action is deadly irresponsible: "Lockdown kills": LBC radio host argues 'public is being scared into backing another lockdown'


Prof Hayward said he thought schools would have to return "maybe a little bit later" but that it would mean "we're going to have to have increased, strict restrictions in other areas of society to pay for that".

"We need to be more or less in a similar sort of messages of stay at home unless you really, really have to, so there's that combined with incentivisation of testing, incentivisation of isolation - those sorts of things that will carry us through the next few months while we get as many people as possible vaccinated."


Comment: There's no need to vaccinate the entire population against a virus that is harmless to the vast majority. That's why flu vaccinations were only ever given to the vulnerable. And, even then, there are serious questions over whether decades of flu vaccination campaigns did more harm than good.


His warning comes after figures revealed yesterday England now more Covid-19 patients in NHS hospitals in England than during the peak of the first wave in April, new figures have revealed.

The NHS England data shows there were 20,426 patients in NHS hospitals in England as of 8am on Monday, compared to the 18,974 patients recorded on April 12.


Comment: Note the above claims are deliberately misleading:




The number of further lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus recorded in a single day in the UK also hit a new high of 41,385 as of 9am Monday, according to Government figures.

Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said: "This very high level of infection is of growing concern at a time when our hospitals are at their most vulnerable, with new admissions rising in many regions."

The figures come amid warnings that hospitals in the South are facing a rise in pressure due to the increasing number of coronavirus patients.