Covid lockdown: England's 'Freedom Day' is surrender, not a victory over the virus. Scotland must choose a safer path – Gillian Mackay MSP

Yesterday’s statement by the First Minister was significant moment in the pandemic which has defined all of our lives in the last 16 months.

Scotland should have a more cautious approach to dealing with Covid that closely follows World Health Organisation guidance, says Gillian Mackay (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Significant because after all this time of largely following a four-nation approach, Nicola Sturgeon has decided Scotland needs to do things more differently. The Scottish Greens think this is long overdue.

Right from the start we have argued for a more cautious approach that closely follows the World Health Organisation guidance and emulates successful approaches like that of New Zealand

The question has to be: are we diverging enough from an approach which the British Medical Association has warned is “perilous and irresponsible”?

Divergence is needed more than ever now, when New Zealand is balking in horror at the approach taken by Boris Johnson’s reckless government, driven by economic ideology and which flies in the face of public health science.

“If you are going to train a virus to escape vaccine-induced immunity, you would do exactly what they're doing,” an evolutionary virologist at the University of Otago, Jemma Geoghegan, told a New Zealand news agency.

The UK is being reckless. The policy seems to be to infect as many people as possible, despite the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant, and in the full knowledge that people are still getting sick and suffering from long-term and debilitating symptoms, even when they are fully vaccinated.

It’s a policy which puts economic growth ahead of the lives of the frail and vulnerable, and which expects young people who have not yet been vaccinated to return to normal and pick up the virus. Mass infection of children and young people is the strategy of this Tory government.

No wonder that has been criticised by other countries, the World Health Organisation and public health experts.

A letter in the Lancet medical journal calling the government’s herd immunity by mass infection plan “unscientific and unethical” has now been signed by over 1,000 doctors and health scientists. They demand we wait until far more people have had both doses of the vaccine.

Unfortunately, it would be impossible to fully insulate Scotland from the inevitable spread of new variants caused by this dangerous tactic by our nearest neighbours. But it is clear that Scotland needs a more cautious and gradual approach, especially when case numbers remain high and the vaccine rollout is slowing down – the numbers of people taking their first dose has dropped considerably in the last fortnight.

The use of face coverings, distancing and self-isolation is responsible to protect the vulnerable. People must be supported to keep this up, even if Boris Johnson is undermining it.

We are particularly concerned about those who are still vulnerable even after being vaccinated and young people who are still waiting to be jabbed – we all have a duty to keep them safe. That’s why the Scottish Greens believe home working should be a default for the rest of the year.

What hasn’t helped is the notion of a ‘freedom day’ perpetuated by the tabloids, in which victory is declared over the virus and people take to the streets to hug each other. While the Tories have embraced this fantasy for next Monday in England as they lift all restrictions, it is no victory but rather complete surrender to the virus.

In Scotland, the government has identified August 9 as the day in which emergency legislation is expected to be lifted. But surely, we have learned not to second guess this virus.

We have to be driven by the data, in terms of the spread of the new variants, the numbers vaccinated and those seriously ill. What is clear is that even if restrictions are going to be lifted then, safety measures like face coverings and distancing will be with us for a while yet.

And for the businesses and venues struggling with restrictions, we can safely say it would be more reckless to pretend that we are out of the woods and force another full lockdown down the road, as has happened in the Netherlands. For their reassurance, it is surely better to ease out and not try and second guess what variants will come when.

So, while the Scottish Greens welcome the fact that working from home will remain the default, the majority of those working in the hospitality sector are young people who have yet to be fully vaccinated. Given the First Minister said she does not want to treat young people as an experiment, it may be too early to restart large indoor events which will likely be staffed by folk who are not fully vaccinated and could become super spreader events.

There will be pressure on our services too. Last week, the BMA and the Royal College of GPs issued stark warnings about the pressure the high rate of Covid cases is placing on general practice.

Out-of-hours GP services have been particularly affected as workload pressures within in-hours general practice are impacting the availability of GPs to work out of hours and there are serious concerns amongst GPs about the ability of services to cope with demand. Some patients attending out of hours have been asked to wait for an appointment with their normal GP. We need to make sure our services are able to cope with an increase in cases.

And even though the UK government has thrown caution to the wind, the decision to abandon isolation for travel from amber list countries seems far too hasty. Scotland should, and can, lead by example.

We have entered a new phase of this pandemic journey, one which sees Scotland take a different path to England, so the need for basic safety measures, for caution and the reasons for that difference will remain absolutely fundamental.

Gillian Mackay is a Scottish Green Party MSP for Central Scotland

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.