In the interview Costello says 50,000 excess deaths have been caused so far by Johnson’s failure to lock down earlier. The initial plan to pursue herd immunity has been a catastrophe.

No-one knows what the exact level of population immunity is required to achieve herd immunity. But instead of attempting to eliminate the virus, as New Zealand and others have done and as even Scotland is attempting to do, Johnson continues to pursue policies which are causing unnacceptably high rates of community transmission and deaths.