China: New Zealand calls for 'respect' questioned by commentator

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Professor Michael Baker, an official advisor to Jacinda Ardern’s New Zealand government, has stated that the UK’s approach to handling the pandemic has been far from perfect. Speaking to The Citizens, Mr Baker said: “In New Zealand, we’ve always looked to the UK for leadership, you have a remarkable depth of scientific knowledge, you’ve done incredibly well in vaccine development and roll-out.”

He added: “And that’s why it just seems so remarkable that you’re not following even basic public health principles here.

“You started with an approach of herd immunity, of assuming that mass infection with this virus would protect the UK population and of course that was rapidly identified as a completely unacceptable approach in terms of disease burden.”

Mr Baker continued: “It seems now, strangely, that you’re going back to that approach, given that it has failed so dismally around the globe.

“So we are, and my colleagues in New Zealand are, quite astounded that you’re doing this despite the amazing expertise you have in the UK.”

The news comes after many UK experts warned Boris Johnson about the risks associated with lifting all restrictions on the so-called ‘Freedom Day’.

Professor Chris Whitty claimed earlier this week the UK is “not out of the woods yet”.

He pointed to COVID-19 hospitalisations, which were doubling every three weeks.

Mr Whitty said: “I don’t think we should underestimate the fact that we could get into trouble again surprisingly fast.

“I think saying the numbers in hospital are low now, that does not mean the numbers will be low in hospitals in five, six, seven, eight weeks’ time.

“They could actually be really quite serious.”

On July 16 alone, there were 51,870 new coronavirus cases recorded and 49 deaths.

In total, the UK has seen 5,332,371 cases and 128,642 deaths from the virus.

On July 15, there were 3,964 patients in hospital, 551 of whom were on ventilation.

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