One argument I’ve heard many times is that it is better to overreact to a pesky virus like Covid-19 than to underreact. But is that true? Our response to Covid has consequences, too. Lockdowns, as the World Health Organisation now admits, have terrible consequences for the economy and for mental health.

And fear has consequences, too. Inducing dread and alarm among the populace, encouraging people to think the near future will be bleak, damages the social fabric. It causes national dejection, a culture of atomisation. Everyone asks if Boris Johnson will take responsibility for Omicron, given he has refused, so far, to enforce harsh measures. But who will take responsibility for the social sickness caused by the incessant banging of the drum of fear? Sage? Whitty? The media?

Then there’s the cynicism about vaccination these people risk provoking. The idea that a highly vaxxed country like ours could be battered by Covid in an even worse way now than we were in the pre-vaccination era sends the message that vaccines are pointless.