There is no logic. That's been the policy from day 1 - do whatever's most stupid.

It's going to be a long time before I go anywhere without a mask and sanitiser.
Reading the local news here (NE Scotland) hospitals are teetering on the edge again. I accept part of the increase in UK numbers is down to a massive push for everyone to test a couple of times a week but the scenes of football crowds celebrating tell me there's going to be a surge in cases in a couple of weeks.
Meanwhile 30 folk at a wedding aren't allowed to dance. 🙄

Hope all is going well for you, Stompie.

I agree that plans about opening up are crazy, whether in parts of the UK or in France. Nobody I know is planning going maskless etc from the 19th, and that’s a mix of ages, not just the oldies, just people with a bit of sense. We had a break before the last opening up in England and we’re doing the same before the 19th - a weekend of country air and R&R before what could be madness descends.

Despite the other posts there is a logic, perhaps not a good one, but a logic.

As Mysty, in one of his lucid moments noted in another place. a lockdown does not stop the virus just slows it down.
So the first lockdown, stopped the NHS being overwhelmed, allowed some time to start developing a vaccine, and also the start of treatments for those severely infected.  When it was released cases started to climb again through the summer and into autumn.
Lockdown two again removed pressure on the NHS and allowed vaccines to receive their emergency use approval having completed stage 3 testing.
Lockdown 3 once again reduced pressure on the NHS.  People got vaccinated, they became vaccinated.  Their level of protection became higher - much higher.
And now cases are rising again - as predicted back in February but perhaps a little sooner and much faster courtesy of Delta.

"If not now then when?" comes into play.  There are no more new tools in the Covid tool box.  Anything you do now just delays the inevitable - controlled or uncontrolled.  Ideally you would want everyone who is going to get vaccinated to have had 2 jabs - but that takes us to September.   Wait til then and there are a number of consequences:

1.  Everyone will start to retreat back to indoor environments - so infection levels will undoubtedly rise - vaccine or no vaccine.

2.  The children will be back at school and (vaccine free) will spread the virus like nobody's business.

3.  The impact of holidays and virus spread will start to work through.


So   "If  not now then when?"  becomes a choice of now or perhaps in the spring 2022. 

So why now?  Kids are off school, they will mix, they will spread, they will, in the main, not get ill.    Infections will rocket, impacts will be reduced and you generate a protected community for the autumn - herd immunity if you really will use this term.

If lots of kids become infected, you don't have to address the difficult question of whether to vaccinate them or not.   Many/most of them will already have had it. 

Falling ill during holidays has minimal impact on the economy.  What better time to let things go rampant than in a 6 week lay off?  No sick pay, you were booked on holiday (I know some good employers don't work like that but many do).  No lost schooling days through infection or through contact.  

It was the "If not now then when" comment that led me to this conclusion in the face of exponential increases in infections.  Otherwise that statement makes no sense - even though it has never been explained.

An interesting article here about NZ scientists view on GB’s ‘awful experiment’ on Covid...

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/new-zealand-scientists-say-uk-s-awful-experiment-on-covid-will-threaten-the-country/ar-AAM6WWR?ocid=winp1taskbar

‘They are running a really quite awful experiment....If you are going to train a virus to escape vaccine-induced immunity, you would do exactly what they’re doing....You’re basically providing a training ground for the virus to overcome those selection pressures.‘

I find this extremely worrying.
How long before the rest of the World decides to cut all contact with the UK to protect their own?

From September onwards the annual flu season also starts.

Having another Covid wave and possibly an influenza wave at the same time is not good for the health services.

So there is a hope that by opening up now the waves of infections will be in series rather than in parallel (but hopefully the flu this autumn will not be virulent)