The 2m rule was always nonsense on stilts. Whereas The Telegraph quotes an anonymous government minister as claiming 'the response genuinely has been led by the science', it's clear that it's genuinely been led by a beginners' class in evidence-based policy-making gathered outside the room having a fag before the tutor arrives for the introductory lesson.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/05/01/two-metre-rule-reviewed-amid-hope-relaxed-restrictions-could/
Prof Dingwall's words here (that the 2m rule 'does not have validity and has never had much of an evidence base') is probably better characterised in his previous statement that the rule was 'conjured up out of nowhere' (
https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/25/two-metre-social-distancing-rule-conjured-nowhere-professor-claims-12609448/ ).
Yet so easily are the herd led that you see people absurdly jumping into the road to avoid someone they now regard, thanks to Al de Pfeffel's armoury of war metaphors, as a potential enemy. As Jim Royle might have said, 'evidence, my arse.'