The Initial UK Government Response To COVID-19 With Herd Immunity & How/Why It Has Changed Over Time

Clip from BBC Question time on 26/03/2020.
The UK government policy was initially to manage the epidemic with herd immunity (~60% of the population contracting the virus). There are many people on record from the chief scientific advisor to statiticians and modellers as part of the Scientific Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) advising the government, who have said it was the objective from the start. This has also been confirmed by Boris Johnson's initial reaction and response to the pandemic, where he suggested to allow the disease to move through the population. (source: • Boris Johnson Initial ... )
The new strategy came following the publication of a government-commissioned report from Imperial College London’s COVID-19 Response Team, which models different strategies and outcomes, focusing in particular on the UK and the US. (source: www.imperial.ac.uk/mrc-global...)
Since the report, the UK has stepped up the aggressiveness of its coronavirus-tacking strategy significantly. We’ve gone from the idea of gradually infecting a large chunk of the population through mitigation measures - so as to achieve so-called “herd immunity” - to suppression. That means we try to avoid as many people contracting the disease as possible, and keep strict measures in place to maintain these low numbers until we have a vaccine. (source: ftalphaville.ft.com/2020/03/1...)
Despite this, some still believe that the government policy is still herd immunity (source: www.theguardian.com/commentis...)
Credit: BBC

[@sevenup3917]

Thank you for your concise & accurate journalism as seen in your videos here.

[@stephensmith799]

UK Govt got it wrong initially. I recall the 'herd immunity' position very clearly. There was massive push back against it and govt thi king changed. That's how culture and institutions work in practice...