Professor Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University, has expressed his opposition to the notion of a second nationwide lockdown in the United Kingdom.
Speaking to BBC's Radio 4, he said a lockdown merely "delays the inevitable," and that if a lockdown were to be imposed now, it would be even more problematic, as it would push future cases into the winter, when the danger of comorbidities with influenza and/or pneumonia could make the epidemic far more dangerous.
"All this language of 'out of control', 'need more testing' and 'this is terrible' needs to be dialled back," he added. "Our huge problem is we're losing the trust of the population. What we have to do is slow down our thinking, pause and start to be more analytical about the steps we take because as we're rushing, like with test and trace, we're falling over.
"At some point, the government and its advisers are going to have to start to realise that this infection is endemic and set a clear objective, which is missing at the moment. If we don't accept it's endemic, we aren't protecting those who are most vulnerable."