‘Indian Variant’ Worries UK Government Advisers   

The British government is hoping to vaccinate up to a million people a day in a bid to keep the country on track for a gradual relaxation of coronavirus pandemic restrictions. 

Officials, however, acknowledge they’re taking a calculated risk going ahead Monday with allowing separate households to socialize indoors and for some international travel to resume.   Former and current scientific advisers have voiced concern about keeping to a previously announced roadmap of unlocking, fearful that the coronavirus variant circulating in India, which appears to be also spreading quickly across Britain, may rapidly push up hospitalizations and deaths again.  Mark Walport, a former chief scientific adviser and a member of the government’s key advisory panel for emergencies, known as SAGE, warned Sunday the country is at a perilous moment. “My personal judgment is that I will do things outside as far as possible,” he said. “My advice is that just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should.”