COVID WAR: PROOF JABS ‘BUILDING A WALL OF DEFENCE’
SCIENTISTS have proof that Britain’s vaccine rollout is finally winning the war on Covid.
The 38.5 million double-jabbed adults are three times less likely to catch it, a major study showed.
While the Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “Our vaccination rollout is building a wall of defence that means we can carefully ease restrictions.”
Infections fell to their daily lowest since late June – and Covid admissions to hospital plunged 15 per cent. Prof Karol
Sikora said: “We are not just winning the Covid-19 battle, we’re winning the war!”
A React study by Imperial College London, from June 24 to July 12, found fully vaccinated adults are three times less likely than the unvaccinated to test positive – 0.4 per cent of a random sample of 98,000 compared with 1.21 per cent of those who had not had a single shot.
If the double-jabbed have contact with someone who has Covid, only 3.84 per cent catch it and infections are milder generally. That would mean a big long-term fall in the R – for reproduction – number, which indicates how the virus is spreading.
Mr Javid said: “Our vaccination rollout is building a wall of defence that means we can carefully ease restrictions and get back to the things we love, but we need to be cautious.
“Today’s report shows the importance of taking personal responsibility. I urge anyone who has yet to receive a vaccine to get jabbed.” He added: “The vaccines are safe and they are working.”
Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said: “We must continue our phenomenal progress – my message to anyone who has not yet been vaccinated is ‘Please come forward, to protect yourself, your family and your community’.”
Prof Sikora, the Daily Express’s Positive Professor, said last night: “This is fantastic news. We are not just winning the Covid19 battle, we’re winning the war!
“Countries like Australia have proved you cannot try to keep Covid out – vaccinating is the only way through the pandemic.”
The one-time director of the World Health Organisation’s cancer programme continued: “Epidemiologists and scientists have not been very positive in their outlook over the last year-and-a-half but they all seem to be now.We must never be complacent in this pandemic – but we must also acknowledge positive data when it comes.”
Department of Health data yesterday showed fresh Covid cases had fallen by 7.7 per cent on a week ago, to 21,691 – the lowest daily total since late June.
Covid admissions to hospital plunged 15 per cent, with 731 recorded, while just seven of England’s 300-plus authorities noted an increase in Covid positivity rates. Daily deaths rose to 138 but observers said that may be due to a lag in recording weekend figures. Prof Paul Elliott, director of the Imperial College/Ipsos Mori React programme, said: “Vaccination is highly effective against serious outcomes.” Steven Riley, professor of infectious disease dynamics at Imperial, said unvaccinated young adults are driving infection rates: “So every additional person that gets vaccinated is taking a decent chunk of potential transmission out of what may or may not happen in September” – when schools restart.
Other scientists said a lot of the UK is close to having Covid in full retreat.
Prof Paul Hunter, an infectious disease specialist at the University of East Anglia, said: “We can now see that in England new admissions to hospital have peaked.
“The fact hospital admissions are now falling provides further evidence that the decline in cases in the last couple of weeks was real.” While Prof Stephen Reicher of
the University of St Andrews and a Government advisor on its Sage body, said official data shows “the public are behaving responsibly”.
A further 126,307 second vaccine doses were given on Monday, taking the double-jab total to 38.5 million –
73 per cent of adults.
There were 26,114 more first doses, meaning 46.8 million – 88.7 per cent of adults – have received one shot. Gillian Keegan, minister for apprenticeships, called the fall in Covid hospital admissions “very, very promising”.
Meanwhile, most Covid curbs in Scotland are to be lifted on Monday but masks remain mandatory in some settings.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs during a virtual sitting of the Scottish Parliament that the country could move beyond Level 0 – the lowest level of its five tiers of restrictions – due to the “steady decline in cases” and “the success of vaccination”.
She said restrictions on physical distancing and the size of social gatherings would go, permitting large events and letting nightclubs reopen. But masks will be required in shops and on transport for “some time to come”. Contact tracing of positive cases will remain, pubs and restaurants must still collect customers’ details and home working will continue to be advised.
Ms Sturgeon said ministers were considering “very carefully the possible, albeit limited, use of Covid status certification for access to certain higher-risk venues”.
An app under development would allow certification for people travelling abroad, she said, plus vaccine certification domestically.
The First Minister said: “We do not underestimate the ethical, equity and human rights issues associated with Covid-status certification and will keep members updated and consulted.”
BRITAIN could be in the throes of a health catastrophe if heroic scientists had not developed game-changing vaccines. Instead, there is growing confidence we are “over the edge of the third wave” with double-jabbed Brits three times less likely than unvaccinated people to test positive.
Daily cases have hit a five-week low and the shadow of Covid-19 is lifting from the country. As Health Secretary Sajid Javid put it, we can “carefully ease restrictions and get back to the things we love”.
Of course, the virus has not vanished from the UK and we cannot abandon caution. People who have self-isolated have all played their part in stopping the virus reaching the most vulnerable.
The whole nation owes huge thanks to the men and women who perfected the vaccines and the incredible army of people who have worked with commitment and good cheer to deliver the jabs. This is a success story and those responsible can take pride in their efforts for the rest of their lives.