Lifting the lockdowns

Ever since governments first began trying to contain the coronavirus pandemic, economists and pundits around the world have debated the apparent trade-off between protecting public health, and minimising the economic harm that the containment measure would likely cause.

But is the whole idea of health versus wealth wrongheaded? We hear from Jo Michell, associate professor in economics at the Bristol Business School, and from Laurence Boone, chief economist at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Meanwhile, businesses and workers around the UK are holding their breath for the end of lockdown, as the BBC’s Joshua Thorpe has been finding out.

(Picture: Woman reopening her small business after Covid-19; Credit: FatCamera/Getty Images)