Andy Mayer, IEA Energy, Environment and Infrastructure Analyst, has written a piece for City AM on the recently introduced rules to tackle the spread of the Omicron Covid variant.

Andy highlights the incoherence of the recent measures, pointing out that,

“Though the hospitality sector will have breathed a sigh of relief upon learning face coverings won’t be compulsory in their venues, it makes little sense that the rule applies to sandwich shops but not sandwiches in restaurants. It is designed to limit some risks but not others.”

Further, Andy posits that what underlies this latest batch of regulations is not scientific empiricism or data, but the political desire for a government to be seen to be taking action.

“But the entire package of measures may amount to little more than unnecessary gesture theatre… Dr Angelique Coetzee, one of the first doctors to identify Omicron, suggested that she had seen “nothing” to “warrant the extreme action” taken by the UK. Even if she’s wrong, extreme action cannot be the state’s instinctive response to new mutations.”

Read the full article here.