I suppose we should be grateful for small mercies but I can’t help wondering if Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his handful of advisors from the fields of politics, medicine and science have got it wrong.

Okay, I am not a politician, medico or scientist, but I know a few people who are and some of them are as sceptical as I am about current Government policies over COVID-19.

Back in March, when thousands flocked to the Cheltenham racing festival, and filled Anfield for the match between Liverpool and Atletico Madrid, we were told that was quite in order as it was highly unlikely that the disease would spread among such huge crowds in the open air.

A few weeks later, with Johnson about to go into hospital with coronavirus, seemingly at death’s door, there was a complete volte-face by the Government. Now, with the partial lifting of lockdown, outside gatherings of more than six family and-or friends are a no-no.

Not only has this edict been ignored by some of those advising the Government but by many thousands demonstrating, as has happened virtually all over the world, about the fatal suffocation of black American George Floyd by a policeman kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes in Minneapolis.

Here in Britain we no longer seem to be in lockdown, but meltdown. The weekend’s mass demos over Floyd’s death, and alleged racism in this country, saw some violent confrontations between the police and demonstrators, including one scene in London of 'PC' PCs (police constables) legging it rather than face the angry mob, few of whom were wearing the face masks that are to become mandatory shortly on public transport.

It has been suggested the coppers were under strict orders from their even more PC bosses above to beat a retreat rather than make a baton charge to break up the protesters lest this was interpreted as police brutality. Yet am I In alone in thinking that, when Premier League football returns a week tomorrow, any fans gathering outside the grounds protesting about not being allowed in to cheer their teams, will swiftly have their collars felt and hauled off to the cells?

I also suggest that there are those in Government, medicine and science who think that banning crowds is a waste of time as well as the revenue they would bring to these desperate economic times. It may well be that Johnson and his boffins were right some three months ago when they allowed the Cheltenham race meeting and the Liverpool match to go ahead.

A growing view, certainly among the medical profession, is that the virus is unlikely to be effective in the open air unless of course you are standing or sitting next to someone who is affected and may sneeze or wheeze all over you. But surely that’s what masks are for.

These masks are as protective of yourself and others, so we are told. So why should clubs not be allowed to issue them at the turnstiles? They could easily be subsidised by the stone-rich Premier League - even for the English Football League when that partially returns on June 20.

Just so games would not have that hollow ring about them, surely roar of the crowd would be welcomed, Even if somewhat muted by the masks.

It is by no means the weirdest idea amid the handling, or rather mishandling of the crisis by Government ministers who I suspect are only voicing the views of the appointed advisers which have left us lagging behind much of the world. As a layman may I respectfully suggest, as in all medical matters, we are entitled to a second opinion, some fresh ideas from some fresh faces.

Of course sport is not alone in being given relatively short shrift. The hospitality and tourism business is on the brink of collapse, with the bleak prospect of some three million unemployed in the foreseeable future. Hotels remain closed, the majority of planes are grounded and cruise ships bob empty and forlornly anchored off the south coast.

Yet the Government has inflamed the situation by ridiculously imposing a two-week quarantine for those arriving from abroad, most from countries which have curtailed coronavirus far quicker and more effectively than Britain, which is virtually impossible to police.

We are becoming more cynical by the day when we hear that the man who thought up this hare-brained scheme was none other than the Prime Minister’s apparently indispensable Svengali, Dominic Cummings. Yes, the chap who broke the lockdown he also mandated by driving 250 miles north to Durham over Easter with his wife and four-year-old child on the pretext of shielding them from the virus he thought he might have contracted and to say hello to his mum and dad. Subsequently he made a 30-mile drive to a local beauty spot on his wife’s birthday, with his child in the back seat, as he apparently believed he needed to test that his eyesight was up to scratch to drive home the next day.

After much pressure the thoroughly unlikeable media-phobe was coerced by Johnson into giving an uncomfortable press conference in the rose garden of Downing Street - a performance which made Pinocchio appear like George Washington. Hilariously the BBC programme which followed was a panel game called Would I Lie To You? Nationwide the feeling was that Cummings would - and had.

But back to sport, such as it is of which Johnson is deemed to be a fan, unlike his advisor-in-chief.

Could it be that Johnson was panicked by the so-called sophistry of Cummings into getting the respective sports bodies to call off this summer’s Wimbledon, the Open golf tournament, the Varsity boat race among other British sporting institutions where crowds would together in the fresh air - with, apparently, little or no chance of catching the virus?

Who knows.

What we do know is that at least horse racing and football are back on the box, after a fashion, hopefully paving the way for more professional sport. As Lewis Hamilton said when the go-ahead for British Grands Prix at Silverstone next month was given, the roar of the engines rather than the roar of the crowd is better than nothing.

At least we can settle down in the armchair for some live sporting entertainment instead of the nightly diet of talking heads and a nostalgic trip down Memory Lane.

Naturally in these extraordinary times horse racing is not as we have known it. There is temperature testing of the jockeys, one-way systems around the track, masks of course, no showers or saunas for jockeys, no presentations, no on-course bookmakers and no owners present. Luckily our equine friends don’t understand social distancing, so they can still win by a nose.

Racing’s shutdown is said to have cost £55 million ($70 million/€62 million) but at least the reopening of betting shops this weekend will be a vital source of income to help revitalise the sport.

As for football we know that as well as the 92 remaining games in the Premier League this season every match of the new season will be shown live until fans are allowed back into the stadiums. The Premier League clubs are also set to discuss a series of radical innovations which could see Sky Sports and BT Sport have live access to the dressing rooms, which broadcasters have been keen to do for ages, thus following the fan-friendly situation in American sports.

Football authorities here have been carefully observing the safety measures in force since the return of football in Germany. We are indebted to learn, for example, from the BBC’s Jenny Hill that "in Frankfurt, the team say that they're going to be disinfecting their balls at half time." Just as long they washed their hands fro 20 seconds afterwards too!