At a press conference yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new COVID-19 protection measures including booster jabs for all adults over 18 by the end of January.
The news comes after two new cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant were confirmed in London, taking the total to nine in the capital. The total number of confirmed Omnicron cases recorded in the UK stands at thirteen.
When questioned about the risk festive gatherings could have on the NHS, the prime minister was quick to dismiss the idea of staying away from each other this winter.
“On Christmas parties and nativity plays, we don’t want people to cancel such events,” he said, adding: “we think that overwhelmingly the best thing for kids is to be in school.”
“The best thing is for kids to be safe, but go off Boris!” Primary School Teacher Joe Fretwell said when we asked him for his reaction to the prime minister’s comments.
As a teacher responsible for pupils in Westminster, one of the boroughs where Omnicron cases have been confirmed, Joe expressed his frustration: “it’s clear Boris hasn’t learnt anything from any of the previous waves, so why would we expect anything different?”
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Johnson also announced that face coverings on public transport and in shops across England are now mandatory, a measure London Mayor Sadiq Khan had been urging the government to reintroduce.
Wearing a face mask is the most unselfish thing we can do. It’s essential that the Government avoids public confusion and keeps restrictions in place on public transport while this pandemic is still with us. @BBCNews pic.twitter.com/cRaLjRdDRj
— Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (@MayorofLondon) November 30, 2021
The government’s own scientific advisor Professor Susan Michie, from the SAGE advisory committee hit out at the government for not going far enough with protective measures alleging that they “didn’t listen to the WHO on acting fast and hard, and now they’re not learning from this country’s own experience, which is that delaying measures has cost thousands of lives.”
The government also faces allegations that its COVID strategy is costing lives globally.
Following the press conference, Victorine de Milliano, UK Policy Advisor at medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières, told Raven News that Boris Johnson had “ignored international calls to turn the tide of this pandemic”, by blocking a landmark proposal put forward at the World Trade Organization.
If implemented, the TRIPS waiver proposal would enable manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines to share knowledge about how their vaccines and other COVID tools are made.
Pharmaceutical companies and the UK government state that sharing patents and suspending intellectual property during the pandemic would erode innovation but Victorine describes this as reckless.
“By blocking the TRIPS waiver, the UK government are choosing to protect pharma profits before protecting lives, risking a more transmissible variant to run rampant”, she said.