It’s shameful how we have locked down our elderly

There’s a lot I don’t know about care home visits during this pandemic. I don’t know how straightforward it would be to find a way for close relatives to make proper and regular visits to the very frail. I don’t know details of the arrangements for staff in those care homes to work there and go home afterwards, as hospital staff do too. I don’t know the floor-plans of the thousands of care homes in the United Kingdom, nor how each could be adapted to allow high-priority visits from a relative. There are some 15,000 homes in England alone, and some half a million old people living in them.

I don’t know how the management or staff of these homes would view making it easier for visits by relatives, or whether they would have the staffing to arrange this. I don’t know what estimates the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has made (please God don’t tell me they haven’t tried) of the risks of opening up care homes to priority visits by nominated close relatives.