Cut Boris some slack on the ‘Rule of Six’

Happy ‘Rule of Six’ day everyone. I’m off out a bit later to meet five friends in a pub (true story). So I will be fully compliant and will positively baste my hands in sanitiser on the way in. But I hope to get a little merry nonetheless. But across media land toys are being propelled out of prams at high velocity over the new restriction as pundits declare what a nonsense it is (see my previous piece from last week for examples).

One of the arguments they cite is that deaths from Covid are still flatlining (correct) while hospitalisations are not rising (incorrect, they bottomed out at under 750 and have now gone above 900). Dealing with these arguments in turn, deaths are a lagging indicator, so one would not expect a notable rise in those before lots of other warning signs have gone off on the dashboard anyway. Hospitalisations are one such warning sign and it is true they remain relatively low, having peaked at nearly 20,000 per week back in the spring.