National lockdown ‘hard to justify’, says top adviser A national circuit-breaker lockdown would be “difficult to justify” for low infection areas, the deputy chief medical officer for England said.
Jonathan Van-Tam offered a boost to Boris Johnson’s regional strategy when he became the first government scientific adviser to speak against a fortnight half-term lockdown, which was proposed by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.
“A national lockdown at the moment would be inappropriate for communities in Cornwall and East Anglia,” he said at a Downing Street press conference yesterday. “The epidemiology is so varied across England that I think it would be very difficult to justify for some communities.”
Professor Van-Tam, who gained a reputation for speaking his mind after his implicit criticism of
