The scientist whose modelling led to the first UK lockdown has said that he is hopeful of being able to go on holiday in the spring.
Professor Neil Ferguson, whose advice led to a complete shutdown between in March, said he was confident vaccinations would lead to social distancing being lifted.
However, Prof Ferguson said it would still take many months after that “to get truly back to normal” as vaccines are rolled out across the whole population.
He told a symposium hosted by the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics (J-IDEA) at Imperial College, where he works, that he believed the UK will see a difficult two or three months ahead.
“I think it will vary from place to place, but in the UK or much of Europe, I think we will see a very difficult two or three months ahead as we go through winter.
“But as we get substantial numbers of people vaccinated – remember you need two doses spaced basically a month apart before you get immunity, so I mean, from your first dose to getting immunity is typically about four or five, six weeks – so even if we start vaccinating now we have to go that much further.
“So in reality, we will have a difficult few months with similar sorts of measures in place that we have now through to the end of March, I would say, in much of Europe.
“At that point, both because of seasonality but also because a lot of the most vulnerable people will hopefully then be protected, we will be able to relax social distancing measures and current restrictions quite nicely.
“I’m certainly hoping so. I’m looking forward to going on holiday myself in late April, maybe May.”
