Boris Johnson, Chris Whitty (left) and Patrick Vallance (right) [Simon Dawson/Press Association via AP Images]

'We're led by the sci­ence': UK's plan to de­lay coro­n­avirus peak and pur­sue herd im­mu­ni­ty trig­gers up­roar

US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump has ex­tend­ed his Eu­rope trav­el ban to in­clude Ire­land and the UK. Spain — like Italy and France to vary­ing de­grees — is es­sen­tial­ly on lock­down. But the UK, to the dis­may of many, has tak­en what some have la­beled a com­pla­cent ap­proach.

On Thurs­day, UK Prime Min­is­ter Boris John­son, flanked by Patrick Val­lance, the gov­ern­ment’s chief sci­en­tif­ic ad­vis­er (and Glax­o­SmithK­line’s for­mer R&D chief), and the UK’s chief med­ical ad­vis­er Chris Whit­ty, kicked off a press con­fer­ence an­nounc­ing the re­gion was mov­ing on from “con­tain” phase to the “de­lay” pe­ri­od of their ac­tion plan to tack­le the epi­dem­ic on a somber note:

Endpoints News

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.