When shaping policy to protect us from Covid-19, the government relies on data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to provide the scientific basis for its actions. The weekly ONS coronavirus survey is supposed to be the information gold standard — and in particular it underpinned Boris Johnson’s controversial announcement at the end of October to put England back into national lockdown.
No other course of action seemed sensible, given that the ONS survey on 30 October showed the incidence of coronavirus in the community in England had surged from 4.3 per 10,000 people on 3 October to 9.52 on 17 October, the latest date for data then available.
This was a terrifyingly fast doubling rate.
So the advice from the government’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance, and chief medical officer Chris Whitty to the PM was unambiguous: lockdown was the only reasonable course of action.
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