Dr. David Nabarro:

In all the advice that comes from an organisation such as the WHO, it has to offer the best information, on which others can then make decisions. It should be remembered that the WHO is not an enforcement agency. In this case it has worked really hard to recognise that for the majority of people in our world, particularly in poor places, the thought of living with 2 m distancing is just completely out of the question. If the agency had that as part of its guidance, it would be accused of being completely out of touch and would be ridiculed. That is my understanding.

There is one other thing I discussed this morning with Dr. Mike Ryan which he thought I ought to get across. He reminded me that there is a huge difference between spending, say, four or five hours with somebody who has Covid, while he or she is coughing and before he or she manages to get home and self-isolate, and spending five minutes with somebody who has Covid. One is so much more likely to get infected if there is a long period of exposure. Dr. Ryan and I would therefore like to share with Deputies the following. If there is to be a reduction in the distance to 1 m, it should be borne in mind that if there is a prolonged exposure at such shorter distances, it greatly increases the risk. There is therefore a need to look once again at the likes of workplaces and to say that in a place of work where people spend more time together, then a slightly greater distance makes sense.

I hope that is clear and that the Chairman does not mind me trying to put the matter into a little more context. In practice, over time, it will not be authorities that will tell us how close we will be able to be to one another, it will be us ourselves who will have to make the choices in our workplaces, social lives and families. I think Deputies will have heard whenever I have been speaking or doing media work that I try all the time to help people have whatever information I have in order that they are enabled to make their own judgments, because in the end how we deal with this threat will be up to all of us.