I think it is.
We know there is the Indian Variant B16722 in circulation and that it's currently doubling each week. If it's doing that whilst the now Traditional British variant B117 is holding more or less level that implies it's far more infectious.
By reopening we will increase that rate of transmission even further. We don't know if it's also more lethal than the British strain or if it is likely to evade vaccinations. If we had been brave enough to kick the decision down the road by another 2 weeks or a month we might have better data on how dangerous it is and we'd have 5.2 million to 10.2 million people better protected.
Hopefully it's just a statistical quirk but I'm depressed that we've decided to take that gamble.
We know there is the Indian Variant B16722 in circulation and that it's currently doubling each week. If it's doing that whilst the now Traditional British variant B117 is holding more or less level that implies it's far more infectious.
By reopening we will increase that rate of transmission even further. We don't know if it's also more lethal than the British strain or if it is likely to evade vaccinations. If we had been brave enough to kick the decision down the road by another 2 weeks or a month we might have better data on how dangerous it is and we'd have 5.2 million to 10.2 million people better protected.
Hopefully it's just a statistical quirk but I'm depressed that we've decided to take that gamble.