Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

End mass jabs and live with Covid, says ex-head of UK vaccine taskforce

End mass jabs and live with Covid, says ex-head of UK vaccine taskforce

Finally an honest, brave doctor, without any conflict of financial interest speaks out about "The Emperor's New Clothes": Covid should now be treated like flu, and ministers should end mass-vaccination after the booster campaign, the former Chairman of the UK’s vaccine taskforce Dr Clive Dix has said.
With health chiefs and senior Tories also lobbying for a post-pandemic plan for a straining NHS, Dr Clive Dix called for a major rethink of the UK’s Covid strategy, in effect reversing the approach of the last two years and returning to a “new normality”.

“We need to analyse whether we use the current booster campaign to ensure the vulnerable are protected, if this is seen to be necessary,” he said. “Mass population-based vaccination in the UK should now end.”

He said that ministers should urgently back research into Covid immunity beyond antibodies to include B-cells and T-cells (white blood cells), which could be used to create vaccines for vulnerable people specific to Covid variants: “We now need to manage disease, not virus spread. So stopping progression to severe disease in vulnerable groups is the future objective.”

His intervention comes as it was revealed more than 150,000 people across the UK have now died from Covid. Official figures published yesterday recorded a further 313 deaths, the highest daily number since February last year when the last peak was receding. It takes the total recorded deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test to 150,057. Meanwhile, NHS officials are warning that patient safety has been compromised this winter because of a crippling health and social care staff shortage that requires a million additional workers by the next decade. Writing in the Observer, Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said that the pandemic had exposed “its weakest links”.

“There is a clear, regrettable, impact on quality of care and, in the most pressured parts of the system, a worrying increase in patient safety risk,” he writes. “It is now very clear that the NHS and our social care system do not have sufficient capacity. That asking staff to work harder and harder to address that gap is simply not sustainable. That we need a long-term, fully funded, workforce plan to attract and retain the extra one million health and care staff the Health Foundation estimates will be needed by 2031.”

Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, also called for action: “The pandemic has highlighted workforce pressures but they were never new. We can’t solve them overnight, but we have a moral duty to NHS and care staff to look them in the eye after the hell of the last two years and say a long-term plan is in place.”

Hopson said some NHS trusts outside London would see Covid hospitalisations rise even higher than their previous record peak last year. “There are already a number of trusts whose covid hospitalisation levels are at 100% of their January 2021 peak,” he said. “That’s before they are anywhere near their current peaks. These organisations are likely to be 10 days or two weeks away from their peak this time round.”

He also said he understood that as many as 40% of care homes had stopped taking new admissions in the last week, making it hard for hospitals to discharge patients. Stephen Chandler, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said that social care was in a “national emergency” because so many staff were off sick.

A government spokesperson said “historic amounts of funding” were being provided for NHS backlogs and social care. “Hospital admissions are rising, however this is not yet translating into the same numbers needing intensive care that we saw in previous waves,” they said. “We’re increasing NHS capacity by building onsite Nightingale hubs, as well as creating 2,500 virtual beds where people can be safely treated at home.”

Dix’s remarks on ending mass-vaccination come as the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) ruled that fourth doses were not currently needed because most older people who had received boosters were still well-protected against Omicron, three months after the booster campaign began. The UK Health Security Agency said protection for over-65s was about 90%, three months after a booster jab. The JCVI’s deputy chair, Professor Anthony Harnden, said the committee was monitoring the impact of Omicron on older and vulnerable people on a weekly basis.

A debate is unfolding over fourth doses. Last week, Israel became the first country to embark on a fourth round of Covid vaccinations, for over-60s and healthcare workers who had their third jab at least three months ago. Greg Clark, the Tory chair of the Commons science and technology committee, said a fourth dose of vaccine should be considered for healthcare workers. “The UK Health Security Agency found that the impact of a third dose against transmission of Covid wanes after 10 weeks,” he said. “So, given the staff shortages in the NHS from self-isolation and the fact that NHS staff received their booster from mid September, it would be worth the JCVI considering whether a further dose would help reduce absences among frontline staff.”

Dix was instrumental in helping pharmaceutical firms create the Covid vaccines, which have transformed the risk presented by the virus to most people. He said he supported the current booster campaign, but a “new targeted strategy” was needed to get the UK to a position of “managing Covid” as an endemic virus. “Firstly we should consider when we stop testing and let individuals isolate when they are not well and return to work when they feel ready to do so. In the same way we do in a bad influenza season,” he said.

Dix said the government should support research and analysis of how effective vaccines had been at producing “memory B- and T-cell immunity” – parts of the immune system that recognise Covid – and particularly how they worked for over-60s and vulnerable groups with underlying health conditions. “With this data in hand we should influence vaccine manufacturers who have vaccines that have shown the most durable cellular responses to develop an Omicron and a Delta variant vaccine to cover the current mutation lineages,” he said, adding that Professor Paul Moss and the Covid Immunology Consortium had provided “excellent groundwork” for this.

Professor Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of Edinburgh, said: “Everything depends on whether another variant comes up.

“A fourth dose or second booster of the existing vaccine probably isn’t going to achieve very much. The evidence is that immunity against severe disease is much longer lasting. The only justification for doing a second booster for the majority of the population would be if we saw clear evidence of people, five or six months after their booster, ending up in hospital with severe Covid.”

Health experts are also concerned that the take-up of the booster vaccine last month was driven by the public’s wish not disrupt their festive season. Now that fear has gone it has removed some of the drive to take up the vaccine. In addition there is a widespread perception that Omicron is milder and less worrying, added Simon Williams of Swansea University. “We call ‘variant fatigue’ which translates as people saying ‘this is what viruses do; we just need to get on with our lives.’ It’s not great from a public health perspective.”

However, Professor Helen Bedford of University College London, a child health expert, warned that there was a danger in lumping diehard anti-vaxxers with people who have nagging doubts about getting a vaccine. “If you do that you will miss the chance to persuade those who have genuine concerns but who could change their minds and get vaccinated. It does not help to criticise them all as talking mumbo-jumbo.”
Comments

Dr. Shawn Pourgol, MBA, DC, DO, PhD 2 year ago
Finally! I appreciate you publishing. Most media refuse to publish such articles.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×