[user104658]

Two possibilities here:

1) They know it's not going to happen but are giving ultimatums to keep the lockdown as tight as possible. Using the idea of getting out as a "carrot" to encourage people to be safe.

My thoughts on this is that it is a HUGE error in terms of social psychology. When it's withdrawn for "naughtiness" at the last minute, there will be a drop in patience levels and disobedience will increase.


2) Alongside the clearly deliberately selected "we might still need to do herd immunity" govt press release "that was just one advisor" - they are baby-stepping a scared public into accepting that for economic reasons, certain aspects of lockdown will have to end long before the infection levels have decreased dramatically.


I'm edging towards believing option two because I think people are severely underestimating the looming economic catastrophe, whilst governments are all too aware of it. They can't say these things outright though because SoMed deems it "choosing money over lives" as they're incapable of understanding how closely the two are linked.