By Tony O’Riley-
New Health Secretary has said “makes sense” for people who have been fully vaccinated to be treated differently to those who are not, Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said.
He will make an announcement later on self-isolation changes in England for those who have had both Covid jabs.
Javid said daily cases “could go as high as 100,000” when restrictions were fully lifted, the main focus being on speeding up vaccinations which are already at a high rate.
Treating fully vaccinated people differently makes sense in one sense, but not from the perspective of the stated fact that double vaccinations do not guarantee full protection from catching the virus or being hospitalized. However, if it is factual that being double vaccinated reduces the chances of being infected significantly, it makes those with two vaccinations safer to exempt from self isolating, if that is the only observed advantage they are afforded over those vaccinated just once. Once the advantages extend beyond that , it becomes unjustified.
The fact it is known that pharmaceutical companies and even politicians may be gaining significantly in economic terms from the roll out of the vaccine must lead to caution about the way rules around double vaccinations are applied in the Uk to maintain the integrity of the vaccination programme. The prime minister has already ruled out covid passports or double vaccinations as an advantage to be used in determining entry to pubs, making it not very unreasonable if it is restricted to self isolation for those coming from countries were infections remain high.
On Monday, the prime minister confirmed he intended to scrap most of the remaining restrictions in England on 19 July, including the laws on mask wearing and rules on social distancing.Mr Javid told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he would expect cases numbers by 19 July to be “at least double” what they were now “so around 50,000 new cases a day”.
“As we ease and go into the summer we expect them to rise significantly and they could go as high as 100,000 case numbers,” he added.
However, he said vaccines and treatments “are far better than what we had when this pandemic began” resulting in a much lower fatality rate.
Asked whether he would end the need to self-isolate for those who have had both vaccine doses, Mr Javid said: “It makes sense because of the vaccines, and the way they’re working, that the people that are double vaccinated are treated differently than the people that are not, and that is what I will be saying in Parliament today.”
Sajid Javid: “I will continue to carry a face mask with me for the foreseeable future”
Other changes announced on Monday include the planned reopening of nightclubs for the first time since the pandemic began, an end to all legal limits on the number of people who can attend events, and the scrapping of guidance to work from home.
Yesterday, the Health Secretary said vaccines are building a wall of protection against hospitalization – and jab by jab, brick by brick – that wall is getting higher.
Mr. Javid also hailed accessibility to better treatments than ever before, stressing that the government can now protect the NHS without having to go to the extraordinary lengths we’ve needed to in the past.