England’s new Covid measures still leave clinically vulnerable people out in the cold | Frances Ryan

Masks alone are not enough to protect those most at risk. Now millions are wondering how they’ll get through the winter

Faux ruffled hair. Solemn tone. Boris Johnson’s emergency address this weekend about the new Omicron variant felt like a return to the old days of the pandemic. The measures announced, though, were hardly significant: for example, introducing mandatory masks in shops and on public transport only brings England in line with what the other home nations have long been doing, and hospitality venues such as pubs and restaurants aren’t included in the new rules.

This is far removed from the long discussed “plan B” – including working from home guidance and Covid passports – that some leading medics have been calling on ministers to implement for more than a month, but that is being resisted by Tory backbenchers.

Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist and author of Crippled: Austerity and the Demonisation of Disabled People

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