‘The prospect appears to be a permanent degree of controls ‘just in case”

• ALMOST the entire part of the UK population at serious risk has had a vaccination. Yet the goalposts slide continually.

The great release on June 21 has turned to ashes. Social distancing and masks seem likely to be continued to be required and it now appears the government is determined to add proof of vaccination passes if you want to visit a pub, and probably even a café.

When the vaccination programme began we were told that the vaccines were not fully tested, and won’t be for years but the risk was worth it because of a health emergency.

But, now, where is the justification for effectively forcing people to have a partially-tested, not fully licensed, vaccine if they want a normal human life?

Why are we not enjoying a great celebration of our imminent freedom? Instead controls are, it seems, to last for ever.

If the fear is new strains of the virus, well, they could appear at any time in the future so there can never be any normality.

Enforced vaccine passports won’t help if the existing vaccines are ineffective with new strains and, if they are, we have herd immunity from the vaccine in tandem with natural immunity among those who’ve had the disease.

There is no possibility of zero cases if that is the objective. Tests will always generate false positives. The prospect appears to be a permanent degree of controls “just in case”.

What may be happening is that the government’s advisers have a very narrow focus on just one aspect of public health and wellbeing – a virus.

But government’s job is to look at matters in the round and it seems it does not want to. The plight of all those hugely damaged by the lockdown itself, and its health and economic consequences, is barely considered. Why?

The impression one gets is that we are being kidded along with hopes continually raised and dashed. None of it throws a creditable light on the government we elected and its analysis of the choices we face in our overall interest.

When will celebrations of our freedom be? Never?

MICHAEL NEWLAND, NW5