Oxford Professor Warns Against ‘Talking Ourselves Into Annual Lockdowns’

Police maintain a presence at Clapham Common during the anti-lockdown demonstration in London, England, on Jan. 9, 2021. Hollie Adams/Getty Images

An Oxford University professor has warned that government ministers have been focusing on worst case scenarios in COVID-19 modelling and the UK is in serious risk of “talking ourselves into annual lockdowns.”

Professor Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre of Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford University, said the UK government should trust people to manage their own risk rather than impose further lockdowns.