Scientists raise warnings of new 'variant factories' ahead of PM's announcement
Experts have voiced concern about the prospect of ending restrictions at a time when cases have been rising.
Professor Susan Michie, an expert in health psychology and member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies which advises ministers, told The Guardian: "Allowing community transmission to surge is like building new 'variant factories' at a very fast rate."
Professor Stephen Reicher, from the University of St Andrews and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) subcommittee on behavioural science, said it is "frightening" that Health Secretary Savid Javid "still thinks COVID is flu".
He added: "Above all, it is frightening to have a 'health' secretary who wants to make all protections a matter of personal choice when the key message of the pandemic is 'this isn't an 'I' thing, it's a 'we' thing.
"Your behaviour affects my health. Get your head around the 'we' concept."
Expert says he may continue to wear a mask – and it's not inevitable children will get jabbed
Legal restrictions on wearing face coverings are set to be scrapped after 19 July, as we're expected to hear from the PM later.
But Calum Semple, a professor of child health and outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), says he may continue to wear one.
He told Sky News: "I probably will in some settings, but it's got to be remembered that the mask-wearing is primarily to stop transmission rather than acquisition, so it's people that have got symptoms, who should really be staying at home, that are going to be the risk here, rather than the people walking around who are double-vaccinated. They're far less at risk."
The link between severe disease and hospital admission is "being broken from the cases in the community", he added.
He said: "There's proportionally far more people in hospital now under the age of 50, who mostly haven't been vaccinated, that are suffering moderate disease.“
Professor Semple also said he does not think it is inevitable that children will be vaccinated, saying they "are at incredibly low risk of severe acute disease, and we are now getting data on long COVID and children, and it is relatively uncommon, and it does get better over time".
He added: "So, even there the risks are low, whereas the safety data on children (regarding vaccines) is not entirely complete yet."
“Children are at incredibly low risk of severe acute disease.”
SAGE member, Professor Callum Semple says JCVI will make a ‘balanced decision’ over children getting vaccinated.