Vaccination offers us a road out of lockdown. Let’s take it

As an epidemiologist and doctor who volunteered to return to the frontline in both waves, I have seen first hand the death and suffering from Covid. And, also, the knock-on effects on those affected by cancelled services. Deciding when to end lockdown is, of course, a difficult decision, but I now fear the costs of lockdown will soon start beginning to outweigh the benefits.

There is no doubt that Covid-19 has the capability to rapidly overwhelm our healthcare system and cause unprecedented casualties. Indeed, what has transpired over the last year suggests that Neil Ferguson’s figure – that the virus was capable of taking 500,000 lives – looks fairly accurate. Covid clearly had to be suppressed to stop the NHS being overrun and to keep all emergency services running.

That does not change the fact, however, that the harms of lockdown are grave, from the loss of education to increased unemployment, to tolls on people’s mental and physical health.