Public has lost faith in government Covid-19 response, insists epidemiologist
13 September 2020, 12:20 | Updated: 13 September 2020, 12:57
Professor Gabriel Scally on UK's coronavirus response
This Independent SAGE member argued that the UK's coronavirus strategy has lost public support as new rules are to be enforced more strictly than before.
Professor Gabriel Scally was speaking to Tom Swarbrick on LBC's new flagship weekend show, Swarbrick on Sunday.
The President of Epidemiology & Public Health at the Royal Society of Medicine feared the UK's new 'rule of six' strategy would not be as effective as the government hopes.
"You get these things done by consent, by the consent of the whole population" he said, and made the case that enforcing these rules strictly flies in the face of that.
The Independent SAGE member told Tom "it's deeply worrying that the public has lost faith in the government to a certain extent," adding that it could be down to how the UK has approached Brexit talks of late.
Professor Scally suggested "the government is causing huge turmoil by saying they're going to break the law," and added a "do as we say, not as we do" emerged after the Dominic Cummings scandal.
He argued that it is a combination of these things which "undermines confidence."
Tom put to Professor Scally that the introduction of these rules hint that the government don't think people have been following guidance thus far. The epidemiologist felt the problem was much more simple.
"We've no strategic direction and we've no plan. For me, that's the gap."
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