The writer, a former head of the Downing Street policy unit, is the author ‘Extra Time: Ten Lessons for An Ageing World’
Cycling past Lord’s Cricket Ground in London this week, I did a double-take. It was as if Covid had been a bad dream and normal Test cricket had resumed: white-haired folk were queueing at the gates, chatting expectantly. They were waiting to be vaccinated.
We can debate whether the oldest should be freed first from Covid lockdown, or if it would make more sense to vaccinate younger adults who could then get back to work. But the statistics are stark. Three-quarters of people who have died from Covid-19 in England and Wales, to date, have been over the age of 75.