A letter signed by 22 leading UK scientists suggests that coronavirus measures such as social distancing should be done away with in June to allow people to 'take back control of their lives'.
The open letter, signed by representatives from different universities and a scientist who sits on Nervtag - the government's new and emerging virus taskforce - states that 'a good society cannot be created by obsessive focus on a single cause of ill-health' and calls for all of the government's coronavirus restrictions to be lifted on 21 June.
Of course, that is already the plan, but it is entirely contingent on how the restrictions work and the scientific data around that time.
The signatories went on to claim that mass testing is unnecessary, and that a more targeted approach, as well as encouraging hand-washing and surface cleaning, might be better, the Telegraph reports.
To be fair, you should already have been washing your hands without encouragement before this wretched pandemic got going.
The 22 scientists also want the government to scrap the idea of vaccine passports because - they claim - Covid-19 'no longer requires exceptional measures of control in everyday life'.
An end to social distancing measures would essentially see life return to the way it was before the pandemic, with people allowed to move freely, to hug their family, and no longer have to observe social distancing and wear face coverings.
The scientists, who represent a wide variety of disciplines and come from different political perspectives, stated that the 'theoretical risk' of new variants of the virus that are immune to vaccines shouldn't overpower the damage being done to people's lives, including the education of children and mental health.
This letter arrives as it was announced that more than half of the population of the UK has received their first dose of one of the available vaccines.
The news yesterday (24 April) means more than 45 million jabs have now been given out, which should - in theory - bring down the levels of hospitalisation drastically and reduce the instances of serious illness from the virus.
The latest data shows that more than 60 percent of the UK's adult population has received a vaccine dose, with millions now having also received their second dose.
The open letter, signed by scientists such as Robert Dingwall from Nervtag, and Professor Carl Heneghan from Oxford University's Evidence Based Medicine Centre, reads: "We are being told simultaneously that we have successful vaccines and that major restrictions on everyday life must continue indefinitely.
"Both propositions cannot be true. We need to give more weight to the data on the actual success of the vaccines and less to theoretical risks of vaccine escape and/or surge in a largely vaccinated population."
They argue that 'all exceptional measures to control the virus should cease no later than June 21' because the benefits of the measures - they claim - do not outweigh the 'damage to mental health, education of children and young people, to people with disabilities, new entrants to the workforce and to the spontaneous personal connections from which innovation and enterprise emerge'.
The letter continues: "All consideration of immunity documentation should cease,
"It is time to recognise that, in our substantially vaccinated population, Covid-19 will take its place among the 30 or so respiratory viral diseases with which humans have historically co-existed.
"For most vaccinated and other low-risk people, Covid-19 is now a mild endemic infection, likely to recur in seasonal waves which renew immunity without significantly stressing the NHS.
"Having endured the ravages of 2020, things are very different as we enter the spring of 2021. It is more than time for citizens to take back control of their own lives."
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