UK Chief Medical Officer Thinks Britons Would Accept Fresh Restrictions

England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty has suggested that Britons would accept fresh restrictions, after 20 months of on-and-off lockdowns and social distancing.

Professor Whitty made the comment during a discussion hosted by the Local Government Association in relation to the announcement of a new strain of the Chinese coronavirus, which prompted the British government to announce on Friday a quarantine of travellers from six southern African countries including South Africa.

The chief medical officer told the panel in comments reported by the BBC that his “greatest worry” was whether people would accept another series of restrictions, after being subjected to several forms of measures in nearly two years, with England’s latest round of restrictions that started in January only being lifted in July, with some rules, locally and nationally, still in place.

“My greatest worry at the moment is that people… if we need to do something more muscular at some point, whether it’s for the current new variant or at some later stage, can we still take people with us?” Prof Whitty said.

The medical chief admitted that some of the measures had been “very destructive to social and economic situations for individuals and families,” and said: “Obviously, we want to avoid having to do those at all if we can, and to do the minimum ones necessary, but will we be able to maintain public support?”

Answering his own question, Whitty said: “And I think my overall view is, I think we will,” before continuing that he believed Britons would once again fall in line “provided we’re clear to people what the logic is and provided they feel that we’re being entirely straight with them as to all the data and the knowns and the unknowns.”

“I think the extraordinary thing has been the ability of the UK population, with very, very small exceptions, to just accept that there are things we collectively have to do to protect one another and do collectively, including things that have been very destructive to social and economic situations for individuals and families,” he said, quoting recent polls that show Britons apparently in fervent support for fresh restrictions if needed.

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