Britain needs to live with coronavirus, not in fear of it | Simon Jenkins

Vallance and Whitty spoke reasonably and sincerely in their press conference. But their data was selective, and they seem determined to cause alarm

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Thank goodness for scientists talking about coronavirus rather than politicians. They speak English and sound sincere. Today's presentation by Whitehall's Sir Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty was devoid of slogan and cliche. They just wanted to say that the virus was back, Covid-19 numbers were rising and we all should be worried. So far so reasonable.

What they did not do was take questions on their alarming thesis or indicate how it should affect government policy. They based their argument on two countries, Spain and France, both with case surges" far worse than the UK, without mentioning Italy, Germany, Sweden or elsewhere - evidence that might point in the opposite direction.