Dr Michael McBride’s ill-advised warning of year-long Covid restrictions has shattered optimism

The progress on coronavirus vaccinations both in Northern Ireland and across the entire UK has been incredible. With expectations rising that most adults could be vaccinated by early summer, a return to some kind of normality was a growing and realistic hope.

However, the chief medical officer has appeared to shatter those expectations with his extraordinary and ill-advised intervention. The first thing to stress is that Dr McBride’s remit does not extend to him making decisions over lockdowns. He is there to advise the health minister and the Stormont Executive, and it is the Executive who will ultimately make the final decisions.

For many, Dr McBride’s comments will have felt like the lowest point of the pandemic. New Covid case numbers have been falling across the Province, with Tuesday’s figure the lowest since early October, a sure sign that people are complying with the draconian restrictions imposed on their lives.

People can see the success of the vaccination programme, but by declaring that restrictions will last another year, Dr McBride is potentially putting at risk the vaccination programme and also compliance levels. Why, sceptics might ask, should we bother getting the Covid jab if restrictions are going to continue regardless and how can we possibly keep obeying these restrictions for another year?

It is less than two weeks since the BMA’s spokesman in Northern Ireland, Dr Tom Black, told this newspaper that “some kind of normality” would be here by spring.

And yet, in possibly his most pessimistic sentence, Dr McBride even hinted that restrictions this summer could be even more severe than the summer of 2020.

It’s important that ministers distance themselves from Dr McBride’s comments and give hope to a weary population whose hope of normality has been shattered.