Journalists have got to 'stop asking about an exit strategy' from the lockdown, said UK health minister Nadine Dorries yesterday. Like others in government, and many in the liberal-left media too, she seems to find questions about the lockdown irritating. Tough. We must keep asking when the lockdown will be eased and phased out, for one very simple reason: the lockdown is having a devastating impact on the economy and on people's lives. Right now.

There is emerging evidence that people could be dying as a result of the lockdown. It may be an indirect result – in the sense that the lockdown is not a sentient being that came to their homes and killed them – but it seems real nonetheless. Accident and Emergency chiefs in London are concerned that more people are dying of non-coronavirus-related illnesses than normal because they are reluctant to leave their homes and be a burden on their local hospital. They believe there has been a 'sharp rise in the number of seriously ill people dying at home'. They report that dozens more people than normal are dying at home from cardiac arrests, for example, presumably because they do not want to impose upon our locked-down society and what is continually presented to us as a busy, stressed-out health service.

The Royal College of GPs says it has noticed a 'spike' in the number of people dying at home from salvageable illnesses. Paramedics report that they are attending more house calls than normal where patients suffering from cardiac arrest are already dead – presumably because people are calling 999 far later than they normally would. Things have got so bad that the NHS has had to issue a statement encouraging gravely ill or very concerned people to continue seeking emergency care. 'Anybody who needs urgent help – people experiencing heart failure, or expectant mums worried about their baby – should absolutely come forward and seek help from their local NHS', it said.