MP’s column: Lockdowns will ‘cease to be effective’; we need to ‘live with virus’

Nationwide solutions are poor fits for localised problems, and we’re doing relatively well in our part of England.

We’ve not had a virus death in Lincolnshire since August and there are no COVID cases in our county’s hospitals.

As such, an increase in the number of confirmed cases – especially after we are trying to target testing better – is not the end of the world.

When the lockdown was first imposed, the worry was our NHS would be overwhelmed by an influx of virus patients beyond its capacity or capabilities.

There were numerous problems, especially surrounding the provision of personal protective equipment, but the country responded with admirable speed and efficiency.

Entire emergency hospitals were established, but luckily the need turned out to be very small.

We need to deal with the reality of human existence. As I pointed out to the Health Secretary in the House of Commons the other day, acquiescence to lockdowns will only decrease over time. They will cease to be effective.

As Professor Mark Woolhouse, Edinburgh University’s professor of infectious disease epidemiology, has suggested, we need to move towards a new model that relies on learning to live with the virus.

Professor Woolhouse says we need to rely on evidence-based approaches rather than arbitrary ones like the rule of six.

It’s astonishing that this applies to children even though they play a minor role in transmission. My own children are adults now, but there are eight of us in total which means we are not allowed to gather in the same place.

Until a safe vaccine is available we must concentrate our resources on protecting those who are most vulnerable and allowing the rest of the country to carry on and return to some semblance of normality.

Of course, this means that we continue to seriously change our behaviour, including increased washing of hands with soap and water, wearing a mask when it is appropriate to do so, and not having crowded events in confined or poorly ventilated spaces.

Negotiations for a UK-EU agreement continue and I am trying to be constructively suggesting the Government use instruments of international law to clarify our interpretation of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland.

We must maintain the integrity of our UK internal market, and there are ways we can achieve this without breaking international law.

I remain optimistic that an agreement can be reached before the year is over.