[nffc]

I think it's right to say they need to sit tight for now. New infections are stabilising in terms of growth, half terms will probably help with this more, as will people now getting the right result on their PCR tests, once that is under control the numbers will probably drop again.



They need to get more steam with vaccinating teenagers and getting the third doses out to the older or more at risk.



All doing Plan A better, rather than doing Plan B, which is a slippery slope really.


Once you have people screaming for more restrictions, then them doing it, then they know that they just need to scream again and/or for more and they'll cave. It needs to be an easily measurable metric, in terms of the healthcare figures, e.g. so many hospital admissions in the last 7 days, plus above so many in hospital over the last 7 days, we'll discuss it. They may already have this planned out but not made public.



You can also guarantee that for some people Plan B won't be enough. Nor will introducing social distancing measures in places again or rule of 6. Even when we had restrictions last winter people saying that the lockdown wasn't tight enough.



Plus I don't have a great degree of confidence that Plan B will do much anyway.
- Masks - well, putting aside the debate on whether they actually work or not, even when the legal mandate was dropped and it became "personal choice" a fair amount of workplaces still seem to encourage that staff do especially when moving around, it's still encouraged to wear them in crowded situations like busy shops, and on public transport, if it was tightened then people using their common sense would drop out of it, and you'd get silliness such as a bus with 1 passenger on it wearing a face covering which isn't really protecting anyone else (and that's even assuming he has anything to protect people from to begin with).
- WFH - I think this is another thing where they haven't really relaxed the advice to work from home if you can, so it would only really make a difference to people who (or their employers have) asked them to go back either partially or in full.
- Covid passports - another controversial one since we know even double jabbed you can catch and spread the virus, albeit less than someone who isn't. Knowing someone you are letting in is vaccinated is one thing, knowing they aren't going to spread covid is another. It is also discriminatory on the grounds of age for those too young to get vaccinated or those with health conditions who have been advised not to by their doctor or whatever, who will presumably need a "negative test" fall back.