- The letter that Fausto Pinto signed

On Monday, 19 July, the use of medical masks, as well as other protective measures against covid-19, are no longer mandatory in the United Kingdom. The same country that has only half of its population fully vaccinated, with 52,000 new daily cases of infected patients, sees its minister of health infected and Prime Minister Boris Johnson in prophylactic isolation, yet it enshrines it as “Freedom Day".

The country's Public Health specialists have warned about the seriousness of this measure, pointing to new increases in infection very soon. Whereas within days it is expected that 100,000 new cases and 1,000 hospitalized per day will be reached, they do not rule out that the scale could reach an estimated number of 2,000 new infections per day.

These huge numbers do not stay indoors in a country that continues to circulate people. What does the world expect from this country, which has high rates of transferability of the Delta variant?

Fausto Pinto, Director of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, together with hundreds of other physicians and scientists from around the world, signed a letter sent to the renowned Scientific Journal The Lancet, alerting to the consequences of the possible “Massive infection is not an option”. Condemning British government action as premature and dangerous, experts around the world explain that group immunity through infection can have harmful effects and that it doesn't just encompass English society.

The Professor and Cardiologist, used to working with the most diverse areas of Health in the world, warns: “What can happen in England from Monday onwards is extremely worrying. It is an early opening, which can have very serious consequences, not only for England but for the whole world. This message is endorsed, in its principles, by all scientific and medical institutions, including the WHO itself, which has been very clear about the priorities of the moment”.

Fausto Pinto also reinforces that there is concern that public opinion has “the illusion that we have already overcome the pandemic, which is not entirely true. Unfortunately, it is quite the opposite”. And if the truth is that the economies of countries and their populations want to have freedom again, it is also true that “hasty attitudes can be a bad adviser”.

Additional information available in The Lancet

Mass infection is not an option: we must do more to protect our young - The Lancet