Schools or pubs? That’s the choice some believe UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will face when English students return to their classrooms next month. The country has only recently been able to open establishments like pubs and restaurants, which suffered badly during lockdown.
Johnson’s Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, said that England has “probably reached the limits” of how open it can be, given the number of coronavirus cases in the country.
On the surface, it might seem a straightforward case of weighing up which is more important: a quick recovery from the economic downturn caused by lockdown, or students avoiding the“generational catastrophe” that the UN Secretary-General predicted if schools are not reopened.
However, this is not how the government sees it. According to numerous UK government sources who were not permitted to speak about policy yet to be announced, here’s where Downing Street is currently:
First, the calculation has changed now that we have seen exactly how damaging the lockdown has been to the UK’s economy. On Wednesday, it was revealed that the UK’s GDP had fallen a record 20.4% in the second quarter of 2020.
Fourth, this disease is here and, despite optimistic signs, there is still no clear idea of when a vaccine will arrive. Government sources say that despite the scale of the tragedy, it is still most dangerous for the elderly and vulnerable. So, if most people can go back to some type of normality, the focus can be on local lockdowns and protecting the vulnerable.In short, the government might try to do everything at once. There will likely be a publicity drive placing “more emphasis on public responsibility both in messaging and enforceability,” in order to have a “third way” in which “human behavior is the first line of defense,” according to the government adviser.
