Jo Whiley
Radio DJ Jo Whiley has voiced fears that the vaccine is being offered too late to those with underlying health conditions…
The BBC Radio 2 DJ recently revealed that her sister, Frances, 53, was ‘fighting for her life’ in hospital, after testing positive for Covid-19 following an outbreak at her Northamptonshire care home.
She added that it had been ‘the worst week of our lives’. At one point, she said medical staff were discussing palliative care for her sister, before she ‘rallied round’ 24 hours later – and is now gladly recovering at home.
Her sister’s Covid fight came not long after mum-of-four Jo spoke of the ‘nightmare’ of being offered a jab before her sister.
She explained that Frances was in the sixth priority group for vaccination – but Jo believed due to her diabetes and ‘an underlying health condition’, she should have been offered it much earlier – as part of the fourth group on that list, the clinically extremely vulnerable.
Her sister’s invitation for the vaccine came through on Saturday 20 February – but, by then, Frances was already fighting the virus in hospital. A heartbroken Jo hit out, saying the irony ‘couldn’t be crueller’.
The 55-year-old explained that Frances was ‘so terrified, she rampaged through the hospital’ on arrival, and had to be restrained by security guards.
Thankfully, by last Tuesday Jo was able to update well-wishers with the news that her sister had pulled through and was at home isolating with her parents.
A relieved Jo told listeners, ‘We nearly lost her to Covid. It’s been a very, very steep learning curve.’
What this family has gone through is tragic – and the presenter has made a heartbreaking plea to get everyone with learning disabilities vaccinated, as soon as possible.
‘Forget the classifications, forget the cohorts, just protect these people. They are so precious, they’re so vulnerable and they have no way of fighting for themselves, we have to fight for them. Get them and their carers vaccinated, stop them dying.’
‘They’re so vulnerable… we have to fight for them’