Is there any science that actually backs up this decision to move ahead with restrictions lifting? That's a really interesting question. The government does have some parameters that its working within, and i guess one of them is that even lifting everything is probably not going to lead to a huge increase in number of deaths. I mean, just to point out, last week in primary school children, the case numbers were higher than they've evere been in any age group at any time in the pandemics o. But it is a good question f whether that matters any more.
Last week Boris Johnson announced that all Covid regulations in England, including the requirement to isolate after testing positive, were due to be abolished on 24 February. Whilst the Omicron variant has caused fewer hospitalisations and deaths than many predicted, some scientists say the changes may be going too far, too soon. Madeleine Finlay gets the Guardian science correspondent Hannah Devlin’s view on whether there’s scientific evidence backing up this decision and what the changes could look like. Help support our independent journalism at
theguardian.com/sciencepod