Why can’t the lockdown be eased more quickly? No one in government is willing to answer this simple question

I was not wholly convinced by Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance’s explanation of why the coronavirus restrictions must last so long, writes John Rentoul

Whitty and Vallance in Westminster last year (PA)

Why can’t the lockdown be eased more quickly? We didn’t get much of an answer from Boris Johnson yesterday, so today we tried asking the real prime ministers, Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance, who appeared before the Science and Technology Committee of MPs.

Yesterday, the prime minister said he thought people would rather have “security and certainty” than “urgency and haste”, and that infections were rising in other European countries.

Today, the people who wield the real power gave more detailed answers, but they still seemed to leave some scope for lifting restrictions earlier than the timetable set out by the government.