Boris Johnson ending Covid isolation rules is a "distraction" from the PM's lockdown party scandal, said Professor Devi Sridhar who is a member of the Scottish Government Covid-19 Advisory Group.
Prof Sridhar, who is also the Chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, said scrapping Covid isolation rules comes down to politics.
In an appearance on Sky News today, the professor said that it was too early to end self-isolation and that such a move is "not based on science".
The professor later added that changing the conversation to the end of the pandemic - whilst 200 people are still dying from Covid a day - was a "diversion".
"If you look at the timing, it's really clearly to create headlines today and to distract from the problems that the Prime Minister is facing, which is that he seems to have broken lockdown rules, which many other people had to face accountability and consequences," she said.
The Scottish Government advisor later tweeted that she was allowed to make these comments.
Prof Sridhar tweeted: "Yes I said it. I'm not a civil servant. As an independent academic, able to speak freely analysing public health policy & decisions."
Sky News presenter Kay Burley had asked the professor about England's move to end Covid isolations.
"I think we have lifted most restrictions," responded Prof Sridhar. "We're getting out of lockdown, we're getting normal life back - vaccines and therapeutics and testing have enabled that.
"But to release isolation, I mean, isolation is about stopping someone who's infectious passing that onto someone else - it's, I think, too early right now."
Prof Sridhar referred to the current system in Scotland that allows people to end lockdown if they test negative on day six.
Kay then quoted Prof Sridhar's Guardian article titled 'Now that science has defanged Covid, it’s time to get on with our lives'.
"Just looking at that, I mean, so you do think that we need to get back to normal as quickly as possible, but what you're suggesting is that it's just too soon?" asked the presenter.
Prof Sridhar replied, referring to the PM's scandal: "It is, and if you look at the timing, it's really clearly to create headlines today and to distract from the problems that the Prime Minister is facing, which is that he seems to have broken lockdown rules, which many other people had to face accountability for and had to have consequences for.
"Thinking of the Chief Medical Officer in Scotland who had to resign - there are many people who broke rules and had to face the consequences.
"And we're now having a shifting of the dialogue towards discussing the end of pandemic, because there's a need to create a diversion.
"Instead of looking of that issue and saying the scientific evidence isn't there right now to completely release isolation for someone who's actively infectious."
When could Covid self-isolation rules safely end?
That being said, Prof Sridhar estimated that Covid isolation rules could safely end this summer.
"The good news is that we are heading towards the time where we probably will not have to isolate - hopefully in a couple months when we're heading into summer when we understand more about waning immunity, the boosters, how long they last for those are vulnerable and elderly."
She said that the current system of vaccines, boosters, testing, therapeutics and antivirals has "largely defanged" the virus, but that it can "still bite".
