UK Restrictions lifting, but some say ‘slow down Mr. Prime Minister’

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#UnitedKingdom, February 16, 2022 – UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has indicated that Covid-19 self-isolation restrictions could be lifted by the end of the month. This means the UK would have zero domestic COVID-19 restrictions. Johnson made the announcement in an address to parliament last week.

“Provided the current encouraging trends in the data continue, it is my expectation that we will be able to end the last domestic restrictions, including the legal requirement to self-isolate a full month early.”

The move is indicative of how the United Kingdom and several other European countries are beginning to approach COVID-19 treating it as an endemic, rather than a pandemic.

This means that COVID-19 would be treated largely like the flu or malaria, basically a disease that affects a large number of people in the country seasonally. Based on how the UK treats the flu currently, this could mean getting seasonal COVID-19 shots to protect against the virus.

Many are celebrating but for others in England concerns are growing over the pending end of the mandated restrictions. The Guardian reports that the UK residents and scientists are now demanding that the government’s senior advisors on COVID hold a press conference and detail exactly why restrictions are being lifted in totality.

The issue is exacerbated by the fact that scientists have warned the variants we deal with in the future could be more deadly than before.

Virologist Lawrence Young of Warwick University says, “The idea that virus variance will continue to get milder is wrong, A new one could turn out to be even more pathogenic than the delta variant.”

The removal of restrictions could have a detrimental effect on immunocompromised people in the UK who are at greater risk of serious disease and death from COVID-19.

Sweden, Denmark and Ireland have also dropped most if not all of their restrictions.