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Profit before people: how pandemic restrictions ended in the 19th century
Unsurprisingly, the Tories’ reluctance to effectively fight Covid follows the same logic as the Victorian government during the cholera epidemics of the 1830s, writes KEITH FLETT
A 19th-century illustration from Punch magazine

BORIS JOHNSON announced the end of most compulsory Covid restrictions in England on January 19.

On the same day it was announced there were 96,545 Covid infections in England and 301 reported deaths. The figures were a reduction but remain high.

In 2021 it was suggested in the other three UK nations that to lift restrictions entirely would mean infections had dropped below 50 people in 100,000.

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