James O'Brien's lifeboat analogy for those who want to rush to leave lockdown
4 May 2021, 10:44 | Updated: 4 May 2021, 10:49
James O'Brien's analogy for those who want to rush to leave lockdown
This is the James O'Brien lifeboat analogy which sums up the situation for those rushing to leave lockdown.
James said the news on Bank Holiday Monday that the UK recorded just one new death within 28 days of a positive test for Covid-19 added to the sense we are "halfway down the mountain."
"The lockdown is a lifeboat, the shore is herd immunity and the pandemic is the ship that we were all on."
James said when coronavirus hit, "the ship sank," and "thankfully almost all of us got on to a lifeboat."
Read more: UK records just one new Covid death in latest daily figures
But, James said the idea "that because there's a lot of people on the lifeboat we should jump out of it before we get to shore seems to me absolutely insane."
"You stay in the lifeboat until you get to the safest possible place you can reach, you don't stay in the lifeboat forever, you stay in the lifeboat until you get to shore."
Read more: Care home residents can visit loved ones without isolating after 'barbaric' rules dropped
James said in his analogy the shore was a "vaccinated population or the correct usage of herd immunity."
"That's when you get out of the lifeboat."
James said he found it "astonishing" that people were "screaming to come out quicker," because "we're still in the lifeboat."
On Monday the Government said one further person had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Monday, bringing the UK total to 127,539.
