England is set to enter a new lockdown from Thursday 5th November. In a press conference on Saturday 31st October, the Prime Minister, Patrick Vallance, and Chris Witty presented a graph produced by the University of Cambridge claiming that deaths could reach 4,000 per day early next month if no further action was taken. However, data experts have raised concerns that the scenario is out of date, as Cambridge has produced more recent graphs suggesting the peak number of deaths to be massively overstated. Carl Henegan - Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford - is "deeply concerned" that the selection of data was not based on the current reality.

Clearly, another lockdown will have a significant and devastating impact on the lives of millions of people. This ranges from loss of businesses and people's livelihoods, to an increase in mental health problems and suicide, to delays to vital treatments for illnesses such as cancer. Therefore, we call on the University of Cambridge, the Government, the Chief Scientific Adviser, and the Chief Medical Officer to publish the modelling in full, including the assumptions which lead to such a conclusion. In this way, the modelling can be scrutinised not only by the English public, but by the MPs who will vote on another lockdown on Wednesday 4th November.