UK scientists warn of 'miserable winter' due to new respiratory viruses

 British scientists on Sunday warned of "pretty miserable winter" ahead for the country due to likely emergence of new respiratory viruses, with further lockdowns a possibility

British scientists on Sunday warned of a "pretty miserable winter" ahead for the country due to the likely emergence of new respiratory viruses, with further lockdowns a possibility.

Professor Calum Semple, member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), a British government advisory body, said that children and elderly people will be especially vulnerable to endemic viruses at the end of the year, Xinhua reported.

Describing it as the "fourth wave winter," he told Times Radio "there's a sting in the tail after every pandemic" because social distancing will have reduced people's exposure to usual endemic respiratory viruses such as pneumonia and bronchiolitis.

"I suspect we'll have a pretty miserable winter because the other respiratory viruses are going to come back and bite us quite hard," he said. "But after that, I think we'll be seeing business as normal next year."

Meanwhile, Susan Hopkins, Public Health England's director for COVID-19, warned "we may have to do further lockdowns this winter" depending on whether hospitals start to become overwhelmed.

"I think we will have alternative ways to manage this, through vaccination, through anti-virals, through drugs, through testing that we didn't have last winter," she told the BBC.

Scientists have warned that the third wave of coronavirus infections is "definitely underway" in England due to the fast spread of the Delta variant first identified in India, even though hospital admissions will hopefully not be on the same scale as in January.