Covid vaccine sceptics could see UK ‘being lockdown forever’ ‘Holding us to ransom!’

Vaccine sceptics ‘can hold rest of us to ransom’ says Lord Lilley

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The Conservative peer has voiced fears that vaccine-hesitant Britons could hold the rest of the population “to ransom” by refusing to take the coronavirus jab. Lord Lilley warned the BBC Newsnight programme on Monday night that failure to vaccinate the estimated one in five Britons who are sceptical of vaccination could lead to the Government imposing lockdowns “forever” as virus strains remained in circulation. 

Lord Lilley told BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis: “What worries me overall about forecasts is that they seem to assume that something like one in five adults won’t be vaccinated at all.

“They will be vaccine-hesitant as they call it and they can effectively hold the rest of us to ransom.

“I don’t think that is right, if people don’t want to take the vaccine they should take ultra precautions that they won’t get the disease.

“But we shouldn’t say because a fifth of the population refuses to take it the other four-fifths have to remain in lockdown forever.”

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Earlier in the programme, the peer described vaccine passports as a “necessary evil” in the struggle against Covid.

He said: “If people, especially working in the health sector and in the social care sector, it is not unreasonable to expect them to have taken precautions that would mean that their less likely to get and their less likely to transmit it.”

The comments came as Health Secretary Matt Hancock described the news findings on the efficacy of the Oxford jab as “exciting” and “extremely good news”.

The first real-world data of the UK’s vaccine rollout indicates the first dose of Oxford jab has a bigger impact on reducing infection than its Pfizer counterpart. 

Matt Hancock shares 'exciting' update on Oxford vaccine data

Meanwhile, a single injection of either vaccine slashes hospitalisation by over 80 percent.

Those over 80 in hospital intensive care wards for coronavirus has plummeted into the single figures following the rollout of vaccines.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock tonight described the findings as “exciting” and “extremely good news”.

He added: “In fact, the detailed data show that the protection that you get from catching Covid 35 days after a first jab is even slightly better for the Oxford jab than for Pfizer, albeit both results are clearly very strong.”

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The latest data comes as 20,275,451 people in the UK have now received a first jab of a vaccine, including an injection being offered to all over-70s, and NHS and care home staff.

In further proof of the success of the inoculation drive, a graph presented at tonight’s televised Downing Street coronavirus briefing showed the number of deaths following a positive test result is dropping at a far faster pace among over-80s than younger adults.

On January 19, 61 percent of all deaths were among those aged 80 and over.

By February 23, the number had dropped to 49 percent.

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