The third wave: Should the June unlocking go ahead?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 7 June 2021
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One week from today, Boris Johnson has a big decision to make. Is it time to declare 'freedom day' on the 21st of June? Or could the government be walking into another mistake?
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Guests:
- Henry Zeffman, chief political correspondent, The Times.
- Ravi Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge and member of NERVTAG.
- Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at Bristol Medical School, head of Bristol Children's Vaccine Centre and member of the JCVI.
- Robert Read, professor of infectious diseases at the University of Southampton and member of the JCVI.
- Christina Pagel, professor of operational research at University College London and member of Independent SAGE.
- Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London and principal investigator of the ZOE Covid symptom study app.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Clips from: Times Radio, Channel 4 News, BBC, Sky News.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Boris Johnson has a big decision to make. A week today he'll have to announce whether |
| 0:08.4 | we should still unlock on the 21st of June. |
| 0:11.7 | The truth is, no one here knows, the data is confusing and it is preliminary. There |
| 0:17.0 | really has been a lot of back and forth in government. |
| 0:20.3 | Is it time to declare freedom day or could we be about to make another mistake? |
| 0:26.4 | There are a lot of people in the country because some of them are asking me rude emails |
| 0:31.0 | who really really don't want to hear this, but the fact is that this is not over. |
| 0:37.8 | You're listening to stories of our times from the times and the Sunday times. I'm Manvine |
| 0:42.2 | Rona. Today, should the June 21st unlocking go ahead. |
| 0:53.1 | This week brought an unusual round of good news. |
| 0:56.4 | Today was the UK's first day to record not a single death from Covid since the start |
| 1:01.1 | of the pandemic 15 months ago. |
| 1:03.1 | Offering a jab to up to 15,000 people, Twickenham played host to a huge walk-in operation. |
| 1:10.2 | 50% of adults have been fully vaccinated against Covid by having two doses. |
| 1:16.0 | But we also heard from scientists urging caution. |
| 1:19.6 | There will be a risk of another wave if we rely too much on vaccination. |
| 1:29.6 | Nature in this episode will be talking to a panel of scientists to get their views on |
| 1:34.6 | the decision facing the Prime Minister next week. |
| 1:37.8 | But first, to talk us through the conversations that will be going on in Downing Street at |
| 1:42.0 | the moment, an old friend of the podcast is back. |
| 1:46.0 | I'm Henry Zethman, Chief Political Correspondent for the Times. |
| 1:49.6 | Henry, I should just explain to people listening. |
... |
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