By Tony O’Riley-
The extension of the June 21 date for lockdown was done to buy more time to vaccinate people, a government source revealed to reporters over the weekend.
As the Health Secretary came under further attack for his unexplained delay in making relevant information concerning the efficacy of vaccines against the Delta variant, a Government source insisted that “equivalent data” to the PHE study was shown to the quad. The “equivalent” data was said to have been drawn up by Sage’s Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M) and to have included similar figures to the PHE’s findings on the efficacy of the vaccines.
The source said: “When the decision was made to delay, ministers knew that the vaccines work. That is why we are buying more time to get more jabs in arms.”
The admission came following the revelation by the Telegraph that Matt Hancock withheld vital information from prime minister Boris Johnson that vaccines work against the Indian and the Delta variant, keeping them all in the dark for unknown reasons that smack of an ulterior motive.
On Saturday night, senior Tories were exploring the possibility the Health Secretary had “bounced” the Prime Minister into extending the current measures. And some experts are exploring the possibility Matt Hancock may have a hidden motive to attain the increase of vaccination jabs,
PHE England also provided written analysis on the data which they sent to Mr Hancock on June 12. The information was not shared with the Prime Minister, Mr Sunak, or Mr Gove during their meeting on Sunday which led to the postponement of the original June 21 date.
As officials sought to defend the embattled Health Secretary, whose reputation has taking a big hit ever since Dominic Cummings decided to turn on the Uk government, they let slip their real reason for extending the lockdown date for another month following pressure to do so.
Questions about the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing Covid hospitalizations caused by the Indian strain were influential in the decision to delay the full opening up of the economy from June 21 to July 19.
The disclosure has already led to calls for the measures to be lifted on July 5 – the halfway point before July 19 at which Mr Johnson said the Government could decide to lift them early.
One Cabinet minister insisted there must now be a “political decision” to allow businesses to operate fully again due to concerns about severe harm being done to the economy with relatively “little benefit”.
Despite all that, there have been conflicting messages about whether the economy will fully open up on July 5 or July 22, as often happens where big decisions are concerbned.
Withheld
On Saturday night Steve Baker, the deputy chairman of the Covid Recovery Group of Conservative MPs, said: “Either Matt Hancock thought this data was insignificant or he thought it should be withheld from the Prime Minister and other key ministers.
“Either way, the mind boggles at what conversation must now be necessary with the Prime Minister, and I feel confident it will be a matter of interest to my colleagues on the relevant select committees. If Matt Hancock was deliberately withholding relevant information, what was he trying to gain? Was the Prime Minister bounced?”
A Department of Health spokesman denied that Mr Hancock “bounced” the Prime Minister, but did notdefend tge accusations. Sources close to members of the “quad” also said they were not provided with the usual explanations that accompany modelling by Sage scientists presented at the meeting, which showed that a June 21 reopening would lead to a large resurgence in hospital admissions.
Mr Johnson had hosted a brief virtual meeting of the quad from the G7 summit on Cornwall, in advance of the longer meeting following his return to Downing Street the next day, yet he had still not been informed of the important vaccine update.
The first notification that Number 10 received of the results was in an email to aides at around 3pm on Sunday June 13, just before the meeting that evening when ministers decided to extend the restrictions.
An email sent so close to the meeting was rubbished, as an insufficient attempt to inform Mr Johnson of the data.
Mr Baker added: “To send an email so late in the day is an act of opposition. It’s the sort of thing we do to Labour MPs before appearing in their constituencies to campaign. It’s not what a Health Secretary should do to a Prime Minister.”
Hugely Important
But the PHE data, which was only made public on Monday evening after Mr Johnson announced the delay, was based on an analysis of 14,019 cases of the delta variant as recent as June 4, looking at emergency hospital admissions in England.
It was described by PHE as “hugely important findings” which “confirm that the vaccines offer significant protection against hospitalization from the delta variant”.
Real world data showed that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was 94 per cent effective against hospital admission from the variant after one dose, rising to 96 per cent after two jabs. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was found to be 71 per cent effective against hospital admission after one dose, rising to 92 per cent after two jabs.
The data showed that both vaccines are more effective at preventing hospitalization against the variant than they had been against previous variants.
While, there are calls for the final lockdown date to be brought back by 2 weeks, others are calling for the July 19 date to remain.
If the government felt the lockdown date needed to be extended to achieve more vaccination jabs, they should have been clear about this, rather than use the spread of the variants as an excuse/
It all looks highly suspicious.