When the UK prime minister announced the reduction of social distancing from two metres to “one-metre plus”, he reassured the public that the decision was based on expert advice. Later the same day, chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance, asserted that the risks under the new measures would be “equivalent” to the current level. But can it really be true that the new package of measures will leave risk levels unchanged?

In an article published in The Conversation (June 2020), Professor Graham Loomes discusses whether the government should be up front about the trade-offs behind its new social distancing measures.

Graham also featured on ITV News Central (West Midlands Region) on 21 October 2020, talking about lockdown and tradeoffs.