Van-Tam: Hasty exit could blow it now

LOOSENING coronavirus restrictions too quickly would be a mistake that could ‘blow it now’, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam has said.

England’s deputy chief medical officer spoke out after Tory MPs complained Boris Johnson’s road map out of lockdown was too slow and should end in April, not June.

But Prof Van-Tam told ITV’s Good Morning Britain the prime minister’s four-step plan was ‘painstakingly cautious’ but appropriate.

He said: ‘You’re always at risk of getting it wrong and going too fast. I completely get it.

I am desperate for the football to be back but actually I would rather do this once and get it right and not have to make any U-turns or backtracking. ‘After all the effort that has gone into controlling the virus and developing vaccines, I don’t want to blow it now.’

In a wide-ranging interview, the top medic (pictured) admitted there were supply fluctuations with vaccines and that it could take a few months for manufacturers to get into a steady routine for production. And he said NHS and carehome staff had a ‘professional responsibility’ to be vaccinated. Asked about schools reopening, Prof VanTam said: ‘We’ve got to do it. As we’re kind of opening schools in this direction, we are pressing down on the virus in the opposite direction.’

In lighter moments, he told hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid he did not mind his JVT nickname as it was ‘what I’m known as within the whole government ecosystem’.

When asked about whether he had a tattoo, he replied: ‘When the moment is right, when all this pressure is finished and maybe I’m in a quieter phase of my career, I’ll have a little left deltoid BUFC (for Boston United Football Club).’