The Guardian view on science and coronavirus: no certainties, just judgments | Editorial

The government is sticking to its cautious approach in dealing with the pandemic. But action on the ground may be overtaking this strategy

Friday was the day when the coronavirus pandemic began to radically redraw the map of everyday life in Britain. Bill Shankly, Liverpool's much-loved manager in the 1970s, is fondly remembered for suggesting that football was more important than matters of life and death. It would have been a joke, of course. But the decision to suspend the Premier League until 4 April is a potent symbol of the new abnormality that will characterise the weeks and months to come. Slowly but surely, Britain's social life is being put on hold. The postponement of May's local elections signals the end of politics-as-usual as well.

Millions of people are now facing difficult dilemmas and painful decisions. Across the country, some care homes have begun to close their doors to relatives. Many people this weekend will be thinking twice about planned trips to see vulnerable elderly family members, whose wellbeing is intimately linked to such visits. Soon these may not be possible for an indefinite period. A kind of stasis, shadowed by deep anxiety, awaits us, and the scale of what is to come is unknowable.

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