There may be trouble ahead...
Sure, working from home is convenient, and has probably saved a few lives in the short term, but personally I agree with the guy: we need to get the majority of the workforce back in the office as soon as possible - and here's why.
Firstly, humans are social creatures: we have naturally existed in social groups since pre-hominid times, and in this day and age, a lot of that is underlying requirement is fulfilled by the workplace. As a software developer with over twenty year's experience, I've lost count of the number of problems I have solved thanks to a simple spur-of-the-moment discussion with a colleague while waiting for the coffee machine, to say nothing of how much more knowledge can be imparted when trainee and mentor are working shoulder to shoulder on the same screen. This enforced isolation is unnatural: the increase in cases of depression, anxiety and other mental health issues are all symptomatic of this.
Secondly, humans work best with structure: in times gone by, the rising and setting of the sun used to drive this, but these days just like extended family/community has been superseded by the workplace for sociability, so too has the natural rhythm of daylight been largely replaced by the requirements of "the working day". Pre-COVID, how many of us used to schedule essentials like exercise around work: cycling too and from the office? going to the gym at lunchtime? or maybe attending fitness classes before or after work hours? How many of us are now sloping around from bed to home-office chair to couch to bed again and not much else? How many have put on weight during this time? The longer these restrictions go on for, the greater the post-COVID obesity crisis is going to be.
Separating the workplace from the home increases mental discipline and compartmentalisation: we work at work, and work problems can be "left at work", and the same with the home - we don't have to think about helping the other half with chores or cleaning up after the kids while in the office. Yes, it's nice to be around family more, but I'm willing to bet that after the best part of a year, a significant number of people are now feeling the stress of conflating the concerns of both work and home into a single location.
Finally, being together with a team instills a sense of purpose and belonging: when in the same place as our teams, we can talk openly, banter and vent. We can respond to each other if we see someone is struggling, propose solutions and offer assistance - not possible when your contact with your team is a series of scheduled meetings. Without this sponteneity, it is very easy to become detatched from the others, impacting both knowledge and productivity of the team as a whole. Pre-COVID, it was not unusual for someone who did not participate in team discussions to raise concerns, and the approriate action taken.
So yes, locking down like this has probably saved quite a lot of lives. The question that's my mind - as it has been since lockdown v2.0 was announced last November is: "at what long-term cost?" How much productivity has been lost? How much knowledge not shared? How many more cases of obesity-related chronic illness - diabetes and the like, all of which can cause a premature death - will be putting the NHS under yet more strain for years to come? How many more with depression, anxiety, stress and other mental health issues, for which there are no vaccines or cures? And, tragically, how many more people will take their own lives due to these issues - either directly from this unnatural behaviour that is being forced upon us at the moment, or because the inevitable loss in income due to tax rises required to pay off the massive debt the country has run up has pushed them into abject poverty?