The threat of Covid isn’t over – so why does Britain have a conspiracy of silence about it? | Philip Ball

Our government is pretending that the pandemic is done', ignoring both protective measures now and preparations for the future

Remember those days of looking at graphs and statistics of Covid infections and deaths and wondering if the end of the pandemic was in sight, or if it was safe to visit the parents, or if another tranche of restrictions was on the way? Thank goodness someone is still keeping track of those figures - namely the World Health Organization, whose latest update brings the welcome news that global weekly Covid deaths have dropped by 9%. All the same, the overall picture is complicated: deaths are rising in the Middle East but plummeting in Africa and declining more slowly in Europe and the Americas.

We're still in a pandemic, then. But unless you are in a hotspot, the chances are that you're keen to move on, to return to some sort of normality while trying not to worry about all these symptoms of the climate crisis or the prospect of soaring winter fuel bills. For most of us (not, perhaps, the estimated 2 million or so in the UK living with long Covid) there are other priorities right now.

Philip Ball is a science writer