NOT AGAIN
Britain would go back into lockdown for LONGER and be ‘back to square one’ with second spike, expert warns
BRITAIN would go back into lockdown for even longer and be “back to square one” with a second spike, an expert has warned.
Sir David King today claimed the nation would undo all its good work if hit with a second wave of the coronavirus.
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The Government's former Chief Scientific Adviser was in the role between 2000 and 2007, and now urged the nation to stick with it to see off the pandemic.
Appearing on BBC News, he said: “A second spike is going to take us back to square one.
“It means we go into lockdown again and we go into lockdown for longer.
“That would be bad for our economy and also bad for the number of fatalities.”
Sir David also bashed the Government’s approach, saying “we have fared extremely badly”.
The 80-year-old has set up his own panel of experts to rival the Government's in a bid to hammer out how the UK can exit lockdown.
He made the panel after slamming the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) for failing to be transparent or disclose their modelling or members.
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Sir David accused political advisors including PM's top advisor Dominic Cummings of intervening in scientific decisions and "influencing" advice.
A huge critic of the Government, the South-African born expert previously claimed the lockdown came "too late" and "every day's delay" has cost lives.
He said: "Why we didn’t respond so much sooner once this epidemic broke out in China, I simply don’t know.
"And I say this because in 2006, we published a report on actions needed to deal with a pandemic and in that report, we showed that if an outbreak occurred of any new virus of this kind, anywhere in the world, within three months, due to air travel, it would be everywhere in the world and that, of course, is what has happened."
He said Britain was "unprepared" for the outbreak and "we didn't take action".
Dominic Raab warned of a second spike yesterday, warning its why schools can't all go back at once.
He said: "The evidence has been that we wouldn't be able to open up all schools, without a very real risk that the R rate or the transmission rate would rise at such a level that we would risk a second spike."
"The crucial bit for us is the five tests, and the risk of having a second spike in relation to any new changes that we would make, but that must of course include schools."
Boris Johnson has set five tests that need to be met before it will start easing the lockdown that has been in place since March 23.
The final test is that the government and medical professionals must be certain that there will not be a risk of a second wave of infection, similar to that in Germany.
The Prime Minister is expected to deliver an address to the nation on Sunday, May 10, in which he intends to unveil a "road map" out of lockdown.
Mr Johnson's "map" is likely to feature a series of measures intended to get Brits back to work.
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