First, by simply making the assumption that the whole UK population should in a phased way be exposed to the virus, to develop the antibodies and immunity, we run the risk that the peak of the virus overwhelms the NHS whenever it comes.

It is within the government's own planning ranges for several hundred thousand sufferers to need in-patient treatment over the course of a few very short weeks - this terrifies doctors.

And if the modelling turns out to be wrong and the peak can't be managed so precisely as to fall in the summer, rather then in winter, then the hospitals would find themselves in even worse straits (as would all of us).

Also the rest of the world would see the UK's attempt to acquire herd immunity, as the scientists put it, as massively antisocial, in that it would turn the UK into a country-sized breeding ground for the toxic Covid-19 pathogens, when they are still desperately trying to suppress the numbers getting it.

Finally, it is not utterly obvious that the kind of coercion we've seen in China - to confine the people of Hubei to their homes, to suppress the viral spread - is as fatuous as our government believes.

I read this stuff so you don't have to...

Index of Frank's Diaries