Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Talking down vaccines is a short-sighted tactic

Downing Street video

How strange to have spent a year in a world where to hug someone outside of your household is not allowed. For the past five days, six people in England have been able to meet up outdoors again, but only in a socially distanced way.

Previously, the argument for crackdown on such instinctive human behaviour centred around hospitals being overrun. Today, the Covid data tells a very positive story, with infections, hospitalisations and deaths all down by 90 per cent or more since the most recent peak. Meanwhile, the right data is going up, with over half of the UK adult population having received at least their first dose of a Covid vaccine, and the top nine priority groups still on track to have been offered a first jab in less than two weeks’ time. So people are starting to ask: is it safe for a fully vaccinated gran to hug her vaccinated friend?

The government has decided to ramp up its cautionary rhetoric, which now includes coming dangerously close to talking down vaccines.

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