London wants to continue to take drastic measures against the spread of Covid-19. In a letter, more than 200 scientists call for an immediate change of strategy, fearing the collapse of the health system.
London (dpa) - The British government has defended its reluctance to fight the coronavirus pandemic. In Great Britain, for example, major events are not yet generally prohibited and only a few schools have closed so far.
Social activities continue to run normally. Only those who develop symptoms such as cough and fever are asked to stay in isolation for a week.
On Saturday, more than 200 scientists at British universities, including many mathematicians, spoke out in an open letter for more drastic measures. They immediately called for measures of social distancing like in Germany and other countries. This could save thousands of lives. According to the researchers, the outbreak will affect millions of people in a few weeks. The already busy health service NHS could be in danger of collapsing.
Health minister Matt Hancock, however, insisted in an interview with Sky News that the measures were sufficient. A decision on major events may be made on Monday, he announced. The "really big things" are hand washing, however, and that older people and other risk groups isolated themselves, according to Hancock. The government plans to publish a corresponding recommendation soon. People over 70 could be called on to remain in isolation for up to four months, the health minister said.
Great Britain has already slowed the Covid 19 outbreak considerably by rigorous testing and finding contacts of infected people, Hancock wrote in a guest post in the "Sunday Telegraph". The country has had 1140 confirmed infections and 21 deaths. With its National Health Service NHS, the UK is better equipped with medical devices "than most other countries". He called on the industry to switch its production to ventilators. According to reports, the government has already approached companies such as the automaker Rolls-Royce and the commercial vehicle manufacturer JCB.
Contrary to reports to the contrary, Hancock wrote that "herd immunity" was not the goal of the strategy. He contradicted statements by health expert and government advisor Patrick Vallance. At the launch of a catalog of measures by the government with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he had said that an infection rate of around 60 percent of the population could build protection for the whole community through immunity, and received strong criticism for it.
The spokeswoman for the World Health Organization (WHO), Margaret Harris, questioned this approach on Saturday. One still knows too little about the virus. "It's not long enough in our population to know what it does immunologically," she told the BBC news channel. "We can talk about theories, but at the moment we're really facing a situation where we have to deal with action."
Vallance also based Britain's handling of the coronavirus on concerns that the epidemic could return in the fall if it is suppressed too strongly. The government also fears that severe restrictions on public life will lose their effectiveness if they last too long because people may stop following them at some point.
Sky News report
BBC report
Open letter from mathematicians and other scientists
Report in the "Telegraph" about the call to industry to manufacture ventilators
