The British Medical Journal and Health Service Journal have urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to cancel the government’s planned Christmas coronavirus relaxations, stating that the increased mixing between households would be “a major error that will cost lives”.

Alastair McLellan and Fiona Godlee, the editors of the two leading academic publications, wrote in a joint letter to the Prime Minister that the government’s choice to relax rules seemed opposite to their consistent messaging of protecting the NHS during the pandemic.