LONDON, U.K. -- I met a woman in the park today who said it was her first time out of the house in 12 weeks. She might have been 鈥渟hielding鈥 at home for health reasons.
She had a face mask in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Trying not to judge here.
She told us her son was a scientist and when he returned from China in January he warned her that something very bad was going on.
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That would have been Wuhan, where the pandemic started鈥攁 city of 11 million that was kept under severe lockdown for 76 days鈥攗ntil there were zero new cases.
Tomorrow will mark 76 days since the U.K. was put under lockdown and it鈥檚 still counting as many as 8,000 daily infections.
The country鈥檚 scientist adviser says the numbers are And yet a lot of people are acting as if the lockdown is over.
I don鈥檛 even know what to call it anymore. Lockdown Light I suppose.
You might consider this as well: Wuhan recently tested 10 million people in 19 days, worried about a second wave of COVID-19.
The U.K.鈥檚 鈥渨orld-beating鈥 track-and-trace system won鈥檛 even be fully operational until the autumn. It鈥檚 been a slow start.
It appears a number of the 25,000 people hired as trackers have been somewhat idle. One of them said he鈥檚 spent the last two weeks sitting in his garden 鈥渟unbathing, drinking and chilling with my pals.鈥
This is the government that has now ordered people to start wearing face coverings on public transit鈥攁s of June 15.
That leaves a lot of people asking鈥攚hy wait until June 15?
Something else to consider: A British doctor is demanding the Health Secretary retract his claim of putting 鈥渁 protective ring鈥 around care homes. She鈥檚 threatening to take him to court.
That would be Matt Hancock, the same minister who banned sunbathing and kept telling us face masks weren鈥檛 very helpful.
The woman鈥檚 88-year-old father died in a care home. She鈥檚 angry and heartbroken.
It was 鈥渦nlawful,鈥 she says, to discharge hospital patients into care homes without being tested. That鈥檚 how a lot of the elderly picked up the virus.
鈥淚鈥檓 being driven to do this by a real sense of anger about what happened to my farther,鈥 she said this week.
鈥淗e was in a care home. It should have been a place of safety."
There are many thousands more in this country who feel exactly the same.