GP tells Maajid Nawaz why the UK's coronavirus strategy is effective

15 March 2020, 14:51

With the government's herd immunity strategy for combatting coronavirus coming under scrutiny, medical approval of the method is vital.

Maajid was joined by Dr. Ellie Cannon who is the resident GP for The Mail on Sunday. She was explaining to Maajid the government's strategy and why she believes it will be effective.

Dr. Cannon was sure that "the country will totally collapse" should the UK adopt a shutdown strategy similar to the method in Italy and Spain.

She told Maajid that the best time for any sort of shutdown would be "when we're at a certain point in the virus where there's some immunity in the community", indicating that a cross-board shutdown would not be considered.

The GP shared with Maajid that the philosophy is with the thinking that "part of it is the idea that there has to be some immunity" all the while, the government must be cautious that "you can't encourage the country to get the virus".

Dr. Ellie Cannon echoed the justifications that could be found in the viral explainer video on how the government's strategy would work.

She told Maajid that if there was a mass shutdown and the NHS had to cope with all those affected over a 4 week period the system wouldn't cope.

Dr. Cannon added that in the herd community strategy was to be carried out, the affected population's treatment would be "spread out over 10 weeks and the system will be able to cope".

The GP admitted to Maajid that the time in between will be difficult for everyone, confessing that "it's going to be very difficult to hold our nerve".