How ‘herd immunity’ can help fight coronavirus

This is an edited transcript of the interview with the chief scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance on the Today programme this morning.

Justin Webb:
 We can talk now to Sir Patrick Vallance, who is the government’s chief scientific advisor and is on the line. Good morning to you.

Sir Patrick Vallance:

Good morning.

JW:

Could we start with sports events, which is what causes a lot of people to raise their eyebrows. And obviously we have the Cheltenham Festival, the big rugby match in Cardiff, 75,000 people tomorrow. What’s your thinking, at the moment, that they should go ahead?

PV:

Well, our reasoning is based on which interventions are going to have the biggest effect to reduce the peak of this epidemic, pull it down and broaden it, which is what we’re trying to achieve, and what everybody, I think, agrees is the right course of action. And interventions ones that were announced yesterday will have a major effect.