Publicans blast jab passport plan
BORIS JOHNSON has said it may not be feasible to implement coronavirus health certificates until everyone has been offered a vaccine, as publicans criticised his plans.
The Prime Minister said yesterday that the Government will say more on their possible use in early April, and suggested they could also be based on whether individuals have developed antibodies through infection, as well as vaccinations and negative tests.
But landlords rejected their use after his earlier suggestion it could be up to them to decide whether to screen customers’ certificates on entry, ahead of fresh details emerging of a possible incentive for pubs to adopt the measure.
Mr Johnson also defended his credentials as a “freedom lover” as some lockdown-sceptic Conservative backbenchers prepared to rebel in a Commons vote to extend coronavirus laws for a further six months.
The boss of the Shepherd Neame chain said that making jabs mandatory for entry to pubs is a “fairly poorly thought-out idea”, as trade bodies suggested the idea was “simply unworkable”.
Mr Johnson insisted “no decisions have been taken at all”, saying that there will be an update on the review into their possible use on either April 5 or 12, and said that “whatever happens” the April 12 reopening of pub gardens will be unaffected.
The Prime Minister said that “I do think there is going to be a role for certification”, though it is possible this will be limited to foreign travel.
“There are three basic components. There’s the vaccine, there’s your immunity you might have had after you’ve had Covid and there’s testing – they are three things that could work together,” Mr Johnson said.
But he acknowledged there are “moral complexities” and “ethical problems” that must be addressed, raising concerns that pregnant women and those with medical reasons cannot be vaccinated.
“You might only be able to implement a thoroughgoing vaccination passport scheme, even if you wanted such a thing, in the context of when absolutely everybody had been offered a vaccine,” Mr Johnson added.
Ministers have insisted that their target of offering all adults a vaccine by the end of July will be met despite the European Union’s threat to control supplies from the continent.
Jonathan Neame, the chief executive of Shepherd Neame pub group, ruled out making vaccines mandatory for entry to his premises, warning bar staff could be “subject to intimidation”.
“This is fraught with difficulty, I think, and it is, in my view, a fairly poorly thought out idea at this stage,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of the UKHospitality trade body, said the plan is “simply unworkable” and the British Beer and Pub Association said the requirement would not be “appropriate or necessary”.