Phillip Schofield clashed with top scientist Tuesday morning in a heated debate about isolation requirements for common cold symptoms as Covid fears continue.
This Morning host Phillip and his co-host Holly Willoughby welcomed epidemiologist Professor Tim Spector and Dr Sara Kayat onto the show to discuss the ongoing Covid restrictions as we head in to cold and flu season.
Professor Tim explained that while the main symptoms of Covid-19 outlined by the government are still having a high temperature, a new continuous cough or loss or change of smell and taste, the coronavirus variants might have changed the symptoms to make them more ‘cold-like’.
(Image: Phillip challenged the scientist during a debate about people quarantining over cold symptoms: “We’ve lived like this forever”)
Phillip responded, stating: ‘There’s the rub, Tim. Suddenly, you don’t want people going in and giving other people coughs and colds.
“We’ve lived like this forever. We’ve given each other coughs and colds.
“Covid came along and changed the ballpark a wee bit here. We can’t end up being paranoid about winter coughs and colds.”
Professor Tim emphasised that “we have to be sensible” if people do show cold-like symptoms, while Phillip pointing out that there have been two or three people around him who have had colds and have tested negative for Covid-19.
“Is this where we are now? So the usual cold that you get in the winter now could be, you can’t send your kids to school, lock yourselves back up again… it’s just a cold!” blasted Phillip, clearly frustrated with the ongoing restrictions.
Phillip described how his daughter recently had a persistent cough and despite testing negative for coronavirus with a PCR test, she felt “paranoid” and “terrified” to go anywhere because she was coughing’.
Phillip continued unloading his frustrations: “And that’s where we’ve ended up now, so where we would normally have just had coughs and colds and gone through the season with them now you’re saying, ‘You’ve got to be careful, don’t go to work, don’t go to school, ‘cause you might give someone a cough.’”
However, Professor Tim quipped back: “We’ve gone from one extreme of being over-worried to the other extreme saying, ‘We don’t have to worry about anything, vaccines will take care of it’, and I think it’s the wrong attitude.
“We have to have somewhere in the middle.”
This Morning airs weekdays on ITV at 10am
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
