Boris Johnson has revealed how England will exit lockdown – and the path is a long one. Lifting will happen in four stages, with over a month allowed for each. At the earliest, all lockdown measures will have been removed by June 21.

Four more months of restrictions isn’t too appealing but the verdict from our health experts is that this is the right approach. Moving step by step, starting with lower risk changes while vaccine coverage builds up, will help keep the virus in check and will show what effect different actions have on transmission. However, the UK is still experiencing nearly 10,000 new COVID-19 cases a day, notes Zania Stamataki, and the new roadmap contains no explanation or measures that respond to this. It’s a good start – but a more elaborate plan will be needed in time.

Losing your sense of taste and smell has become a recognised symptom of COVID-19. But there’s also a lesser known related issue: parosmia, which sees your sense of smell distorted. It can be disgusting and frustrating – making normally pleasant food taste, for example, like sewage – but it’s also an encouraging sign of recovery.

Finally, Monica Grady dives into a very big question: if God exists, would she be bound by the laws of physics, and if she were, would this help prove or disprove her existence?

Rob Reddick

Commissioning Editor, COVID-19

Neil Hall/EPA-EFE

Lockdown roadmap: is the UK’s exit plan the right one? Three experts give their view

Andrew Lee, University of Sheffield; Peter Sivey, University of York; Zania Stamataki, University of Birmingham

The UK government has announced a four stage plan for ending COVID-19 restrictions.

Dean Drobot/Shutterstock

COVID: A distorted sense of smell is dangerous but treatable

Carl Philpott, University of East Anglia

Imagine not being able to smell gas or food that has gone off.

Could God travel faster than the speed of light? robert_s/Shutterstock

Can the laws of physics disprove God?

Monica Grady, The Open University

If God could break the laws of physics, why haven't we seen any evidence of the laws ever being broken in the universe?

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