The following is a guest post by Tomaž Slivnik. He grew up in communist Yugoslavia. After his visits to the USA in the 1980s, his dream of living in the free world and working with computers came true when he got to study and complete his MA, MMath and PhD at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a postdoc and an assistant professor and spent time at universities in the UK, USA, Australia & Singapore before becoming a technology entrepreneur and then an active angel investor. He is an investor in many technology startups and a member of the board of Cambridge Angels.

Quarantine. The idea that those with contagious diseases should be kept away from those who are healthy dates back at least to the Biblical book of Leviticus, written in the seventh century BC. During the bubonic plague outbreak of 1665-1666, the inhabitants of the village of Eyam, infected with the plague, quarantined themselves, in an act of self-sacrifice, in order to stop the spread of the plague to neighbouring towns and villages.

The following is a guest post by David Kurten, a Brexit Alliance London Assembly Member.

The coronavirus lockdown in the United Kingdom began at the end of the third week of March. This was after a series of U-turns by the government, which had previously adopted a light touch approach which it said was guided by science. In the first half of March, the government and their advisors announced that schools should stay open because there was very little chance of the virus being widely transmitted by children. London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan stated that there was no risk of catching the virus on a train or a bus. We were also told that gathering in large numbers outdoors would not spread the virus so the Cheltenham Festival could go ahead. Pubs, restaurants and cafes remained open.

The following article was written by Dr. Timothy Tomkinson, a medical doctor. 

All governments have an unenviable job. Balancing the immediate and very visual deaths of Covid with the longer-term morbidity and mortality of government policy is an impossible equation and it will be many years from now if we ever know what was right. The precautionary principle suggests we should err on the side of caution, however there are a number of unknown variables about which we are prognosticating. When some of these are known, it may be shown that the lock down was the right thing to do. However, the opposite may very well be true as well.

The Government will today start to rush through emergency measures in the Coronavirus Bill. It is expected to pass all stages in the House of Commons today. The House of Lords will debate the Bill tomorrow and Wednesday.

COVID-19 is a national and international crisis. In these extreme times, extreme measures can be justified. It is clear from reports over the weekend that many people are ignoring medical advice to stay indoors, or, if they leave home, distance themselves from others. Those who are acting selfishly and irresponsibly are making it easy for those who advocate draconian measures to get their way.