I am conflicted, suffering from major cognitive dissonance. Am I getting my ‘freedom’ from Covid-19 or not? If I am, do I actually want it as the rate of coronavirus infections ramps up?

Are we safe to go out without masks or should we all still be practising social distancing and other precautions?

Am I being over-cautious or am I being sensible in the face of a much more transmissible virus?

Let me give you a real-world example from my own personal experience.

We have been told by the Government that all the data show that now is the time to remove all the restrictions that mitigate against the spread of Covid-19 so no obligation to wear face masks anywhere, no need to socially distance, no need to continue to work from home and the NHS app to be made ‘less sensitive’ so you will be less likely to be ‘pinged’ if you come into contact with someone infected with the virus.

And yet in the town where I live, such is the level of concern about the increasing rate of infections that we are being subjected to surge testing with NHS representatives knocking on doors throughout the area, handing out PCR testing kits which they are then coming back to collect so we don’t even have to post them back.

I know this to be a fact because they brought my test on Saturday.

So the two things don’t fit together in my mind. Either it is safe to open up and abandon all restrictions or it’s not safe and we all need to be tested so we can isolate if we test positive.

Which brings me to the only conclusion I can safely reach: The Government is as clueless about this as I am.

I have written on more than one occasion about the conflict between personal health and public health and I think the current Government stance is a classic example.

My concern over my own personal health is that I don’t want to contract coronavirus, become ill, potentially need hospital treatment and die of the disease.

Public health looks at how many people are getting ill, need to go into hospital and die of Covid-19 and as unpalatable as this may be on a personal level, if that number is considered to be sufficiently low, the public health response will be to crack on with lifting restrictions.

So the Government doesn’t care if you die, or if I die just as long as there aren’t a lot of us at the same time.

Actually, for the Government, dying isn’t really the issue. Don’t forget, throughout the pandemic, the mantra has never been ‘keep deaths to an absolute minimum’ it has been ‘protect the NHS’.

The response to the crisis was never about protecting you and me on an individual level. Of course, you may think that was never really an option, that it wasn’t possible, but I suspect New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern may beg to disagree.

The received wisdom is that Boris Johnson likes to think of himself as a Winston Churchill figure, but to me, he is more of a General Haig on the eve of the Battle of the Somme, calculating the number of acceptable deaths.

There can be little doubt that even if the vaccination programme has weakened the link between infections and deaths, we will see an increase in the number of deaths.

When new health secretary Sajid Javid was asked about government projections that infection rates were likely to reach 50,000 a day by July 19, Javid accepted it was “fair to say” that even this figure could double or more. The highest daily infection rate for the UK thus far recorded was just over 81,000, seen in late December and yet the Government is gambling on a figure that could reach 100,000 infections a day.

That’s not a public health policy or strategy to keep us safe, that’s an abdication of responsibility.

And if you thought that was muddled, it also looks like there could be a U-turn on so-called Covid passports.

The Government has repeatedly said it doesn’t like the idea of vaccination certificates but could be about to change its mind.

According to the London Evening Standard, Covid certificates will be needed to enter pubs, bars, restaurants and clubs. The plan is to try to stave off a fourth wave of the virus in the autumn.

The proposals would mean people would have to show vaccination passports to prove they are double-jabbed or have had a recent negative test before entering entertainment venues.

The reasoning is it will put pressure on young people to get their jabs as the vaccination rates have started to stall. It figures that the more people are vaccinated, the less likely we are to see a surge of cases in the autumn.

But as with everything with this government expect the decision to be muddled and fudged.