Analysis: scientists say home working makes sense but voice fears over advice to go ahead with parties amid steep trajectory in cases
Work from home, but keep going to Christmas parties: Boris Johnson’s advice has prompted questions about the logic behind plan B and left a lingering sense of confusion about the scale of the threat posed by the Omicron variant. So does the plan stand up to scrutiny?
Scientists say that making working from home a first line of defence, ahead of social gatherings, is not necessarily a frivolous choice. In the hierarchy of measures that can be deployed, working from home is an effective way to bring down people’s daily contacts and is relatively painless economically. However, many fear that the threat posed by Omicron will require more than the first line of defence and that plan B does not go far enough.