Are you still going to mask up?

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Johnson is back to herd immunity through infection, under cover of a "summer firebreak"

According to PA, Boris Johnson described summer as a “firebreak” allowing a reopening now, rather than in winter which would be a more “difficult time” or delaying until next year.

He said: “If we don’t go ahead now when we we’ve clearly done so much with the vaccination programme to break the link between infection and death.

“If we don’t go ahead now when the summer firebreak is coming up, the school holidays, all the advantages that that should give us in fighting the virus, then the question is, ‘when would we go ahead?’. Particularly given the likelihood the virus will have an extra advantage in the colder months, in the autumn, and in the winter.

“So we run the risk of either opening up at a very difficult time when the virus has an edge, has an advantage in the colder months, or again putting everything off to next year so I do think it’s going to be a very balanced decision next week.”

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/new-supermarket-rules-asda-primark-20977139

Let's think about what he's saying: that he sees the choice as either getting extra people infected now, during the "summer firebreak", or later - and he's saying that he wants to avoid it being worse later, which would only be the case if getting enough people infected now adds significantly to immunity later (he's saying that will mean less people infected in the long run than if we just kept restrictions in place and waited until we've vaccinated pretty much everyone).