Dr. Ronan Glynn:

We will have to agree to disagree. In broad terms, we are not outliers in terms of epidemiological performance. If one looks at schools, nobody would argue that they should have opened before they did given what happened. What happened in December and January happened and we had to respond to that in epidemiological terms. We did not want to respond. The last thing we ever want to do is give advice that, for example, schools should not open or that businesses need to close. We understand that no one wants to hear that but at a point in time, looking at the data, morbidity and mortality, we give public health advice. Contrary to some perceptions, we give advice based on our assessment of the public health position and there are always wider considerations.