Going back to what the scientists had to say yesterday, the single thing that has seemed to create the most headlines was the claim that there were 50,000 new cases every day if the current rate of progress continues over the next month. It has been said for a while now that the number of new cases per week is doubling and that contention has been accepted without question since yesterday's briefing, but the official figures, as shown in the link, tell a different story;-

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/

On 6 September, the new cases shot up 2,988 after they had been 1,400/1,900 range for the first few days of the month. Since the 6th, the lowest figure has been just above 2,500 and the highest 4,422 - the rate is definitely upwards, but the new cases are not doubling every week or even every fortnight. Even if you look at the figures for the first week of the month before the big jump on the sixth, you cannot say that the current figures represent a doubling every week since then.

I tend to be on the side of caution when it comes to dealing with the virus and I appreciate that the scientists made it clear that what they were saying was far from being set in stone, but it seems to me that we're now back into frightening people into obeying instructions like we were in the spring, despite us being told it was fine for us to go out and have a cut price restaurant meals and get down the pub for weeks only a short while ago.