Matt Hancock’s ‘don’t panic’ press conference

After a day of worrying headlines over the potential risk of the South African variant, the takeaway of Monday’s press conference was clear: don’t panic. Both Matt Hancock and deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam were at pains to reassure the public over the threat the new variant presents. With a small sample study suggesting the Oxford vaccine has a lower efficacy against the South African strain, Hancock urged the public to stick with the current vaccination programme.  

With 147 confirmed cases of the South African variant so far identified in the UK, Van-Tam said the Kent variant remains the dominant threat and all vaccines are believed to be effective against the UK strain. He said there was ‘no reason to think that the South African variant will catch up or overtake our current virus in the next few months’.