The Project’s Carrie Bickmore reacts to chilling UK Covid-19 news

The Project panel received a disturbing update from their UK correspondent, as the country lifts most remaining coronavirus restrictions.

The Project’s UK correspondent last night gave a worrying update on life in London as most remaining Covid restrictions are lifted – while guest panellist Dr Vyom Sharma said the move could create the ideal conditions to breed a new mutant strain of the virus.

“If I had to try and create a variant of the virus that could somehow escape the immunity given from vaccines, this is the experiment I would design,” he warned.

The Project panel spoke to regular correspondent Lucy McDonald from her home in London, where she revealed that the UK’s ‘Freedom Day’ on July 19 – where most remaining social distancing and mask-wearing rules have been lifted – had actually left her less likely to leave the house.

RELATED: The Project hosts shocked by grim Sydney lockdown prediction

Carrie speaks to UK correspondent Lucy McDonald, staying home in London.

“We now have the least restrictions in Europe, and last night some people queued up for nightclubs to celebrate their freedom. I probably am going to go out less than I have done in the past few weeks,” she said.

“We’d been to the theatre, to the cinema, and felt very safe because everyone was social distancing and wearing their masks. As of today, that is no more. I don’t really feel a sense of freedom: The virus is still here. We know it’s full of surprises, it’s full of worry, so I’m going into this new freedom era expecting more disease, more long Covid, more challenges.”

The controversial move to lift restrictions came as the UK recorded around 48,000 new daily Covid-19 cases, and only 68.3 per cent of the adult population is fully vaccinated.

Dr Sharma asked why UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson hadn’t waited until more of the UK population was vaccinated before lifting restrictions.

McDonald said many travellers on London’s Underground were now going mask-free. Picture: Getty

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“Seriously, you should be in charge, you’d do a better job,” quipped McDonald, who described the move as a “huge gamble for our children”, given most children remain unvaccinated.

“I know people who have had double jabs who got Covid and are getting it again. My godson who’s 11 has got really bad lung pain. It does feel like a really big gamble,” she said.

McDonald said she estimated only around half of travellers she saw on the London Underground were now wearing masks.

“There’s this idea that we’re through this, it’s a safe time now … It does feel like we’re at the beginning of something now and people are behaving very differently. It feels like we’re on the precipice of something – and we don’t know what that is.”

After the interview, Dr Sharma offered some insight about just why the UK’s “radical experiment” could go very wrong.

Dr. Vyom Sharma explained why the UK’s ‘Freedom Day’ could have terrible consequences.

RELATED: Lucy McDonald blasts UK’s virus response

“They are lifting restrictions when hospitalisations are at a level where they have previously needed to enforce restrictions,” he said. “Then there’s the really unique matter: In the UK you’re lifting restrictions at a point where about half the population is vaccinated – when you count children, as we should.

“So you’ve got a half-vaccinated population, and you’re lifting all the restrictions at a time when cases are surging. If I had to try and create a variant of the virus that could somehow escape the immunity given from vaccines, this is the experiment I would design.”

Panel shocked by epidemiologist’s Sydney prediction

The warning comes one night after The Project panel were shocked by a top epidemiologist’s prediction about how long Sydney’s current lockdown would have to last.

UNSW’s Professor Mary-Louise McLaws said that restrictions in Sydney could not fully lift until well after the number of new cases that were infectious in the community comes down to zero.

By her calculations, we shouldn’t expect to see that happen for “another two months” – a prediction that left the Sydney-based members of The Project panel in stunned silence.