Freedom may damage the economy, not help it – we must respect the risks around us

Widespread absences from the labour force are hugely problematic. With the R-rate in every region greater than one, except Scotland, it's not the time to trumpet freedom but adopt individual caution, writes Jagjit Chadha

‘Despite an end to restrictions, some will continue to practice their own degree of social distancing in proportion to the risks they see’ (Getty Images)

Economics has a funny way of confounding intuition and empirical observation. That often makes it infuriating and fascinating in equal measure. Now ‘Freedom Day’ is here, we might think that this is a case of the economics trumping concerns about our health. But, in fact, there is no trade-off between the two and bad health policy is also bad economic policy and vice-versa.

It’s been a stop-start period of 18 months, but it could be argued the vaccine rollout is so far advanced we have built a wall against Covid that will allow us to open up and get the economy motoring again. But the arguments for circumspection and caution during a rapid opening are more compelling.

Superficially, at least, it seemed the lockdown regime we entered in March 2020 directly harmed the economy. As soon as we entered a lockdown, the economy shuddered to a halt. Economic activity fell in manners that our statisticians could not really place in a modern context. Sectors that depend on social interactions, that are so important in our economy, proved particularly vulnerable.