Tony Blair labels anti-vaxxers ‘IDIOTS’ who are ‘irresponsible’
Tony Blair labels anti-vaxxers ‘IDIOTS’: Ex-PM accuses people refusing jab of being beyond ‘irresponsible’ and says ‘blunt instrument’ of lockdown will not work again because ‘public has been through too much’
Tony Blair said the rapid spread of the Omicron variant was cause for concern He said Britons who decline to get the vaccine were ‘going to get it (Covid)’But he said that the ‘public has just been through too much’, adding that the ‘blunt instrument of a lockdown’ would not work as the government might want
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Tony Blair has slammed vaccine refuseniks as ‘irresponsible idiots’ as he called for the country to ‘go after them and persuade them’ to get it.
The former Prime Minister highlighted the rapid spread of the Omicron variant as a cause for concern, saying Britons who decline the jab were ‘going to get it (Covid)’, which would strain the NHS.
But he said that the ‘public has just been through too much’, adding that the ‘blunt instrument of a lockdown‘ would not work as the government might want.
Mr Blair, whose New Labour premiership lasted from 1997-2007, told Times Radio that ‘persuading’ people to get the vaccine was ‘in their own interest, never mind the public interest’.
He said: ‘Frankly, if you’re not vaccinated at the moment and you’re eligible, and you’ve got no health reasons for not being unvaccinated, you’re not just irresponsible. You’re an idiot.’
His comments come amid revelations that up to 130,000 frontline NHS staff are still not fully vaccinated despite the threat of Omicron – and losing their jobs if they are not double-jabbed by April 1.
Dr Ewen Cameron, of Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, recently revealed that ‘about 80% of patients’ it treated in recent months in general wards and critical care were unvaccinated.
And Professor Rupert Pearse, an ICU doctor at the Royal London Hospital, warned that patients who are well enough to talk often beg for doctors to vaccinate them immediately, and more unjabbed 20 to 40-year-olds were being admitted.
Professor Pearse told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Between 80 and 90 per cent of the patients that we have are unvaccinated. The great majority of us are vaccinated so you’re always going to get a few patients with Covid even though they’ve had the vaccine.’
The PM declared last night that Christmas can definitely go ahead ‘cautiously’, but warned that the Government is tracking the spread of the mutant strain hour by hour and is ‘ready’ to act after December 25 if necessary
Mr Blair, whose New Labour premiership lasted from 1997-2007, told Times Radio that ‘persuading’ people to get the vaccine was ‘in their own interest, never mind the public interest’
Mr Blair had also said: ‘This Omicron variant is so contagious, if you’re unvaccinated and you’re in circulation, you’re going to get it.
‘And that’s what’s going to put a lot of strain on the health service. Almost half the people in the ICU are unvaccinated, it’s really important.
‘We shouldn’t target these people who are unvaccinated in a heavy-handed way but we should try to go after them and persuade them.’
Figures from NHS England show that 1,904 people were in hospital in London with Covid-19 as of December 21, the highest number since March 2 and is up 41% from a week earlier.
But Mr Blair said that he would not have brought in restrictions this Christmas because of the ‘pain’ of a full lockdown, while also suggesting that the current Government’s strategy is a ‘gamble’, after Boris Johnson confirmed no new rules be brought in before Christmas.
Mr Johnson’s Government has now announced the self-isolation period for fully vaccinated people who have coronavirus has been cut to a week, which will give more people the chance to spend time with loved ones over Christmas.
Doctors are now braced for a ‘difficult’ Christmas and New Year as they treat a surging number of new Covid patients in hospital at the same time as more staff are absent because of the virus.
Hospitals in parts of England with the highest infection rates are predicting that one-third of NHS staff could be off sick by January and there are some tensions between vaccinated staff and unvaccinated colleagues, who are more likely to get the virus and face strict quarantine rules keeping them off work, even if they don’t test positive.
Piling more pressure on their vaccinated colleagues, the NHS’ own figures on staff vaccinations from December 16 show that up to 130,000 of the NHS 1.4m workers have had just one or even zero jabs. 30,000 of those are in London, which is the current epicentre of the UK’s Omicron outbreak.
There have been 562,333 cumulative cases of coronavirus in Wales since the pandemic started, according to Public Health Wales data
Public Health Wales data showed there has been 6,522 suspected Covid-19 deaths in Wales since the start of the pandemic
The former Prime Minister highlighted the rapid spread of the Omicron variant as a cause for concern, saying Britons who decline the jab were ‘going to get it (Covid)’, which would strain the NHS (pictured: Demonstrators march to protest Covid lockdowns in London on Saturday. There is no suggestion that those shown are necessarily anti-vaxxers)
As Mr Blair branded the unjabbed ‘idiots’, unvaccinated NHS workers are not only more likely to get the illness, they must also isolate for ten days regardless of negative PCR test results if they come into close contact with a case.
There are also still 23 per cent of NHS frontline staff have also not had their boosters, despite millions of Britons rushing to their vaccination centres to get one over the past month after being told it will give better protection against the new variant spreading through the UK.
The Government imposed a ‘no jab, no job’ policy in care homes from November 11. But the same diktat will not apply to the NHS frontline until April 2022.
From Wednesday, those in England who receive negative lateral flow results on day six and day seven of their self-isolation period, and are vaccinated, will no longer have to self-isolate for the full 10 days.
Across England, 6,902 patients were in hospital with Covid-19 on December 21 – the highest number since November 10 and up 7% week-on-week.
In Wales, more Covid restrictions are expected to be announced on Wednesday as the Welsh Government meets to discuss hospitality measures.
The Northern Ireland executive will also decide on the same day what ‘level of asks’ will be made of the public to curb the latest surge in Covid-19.
Scotland’s traditional Hogmanay celebrations will be cancelled and live sports will be ‘effectively spectator-free’ for three weeks from Boxing Day as part of new Covid-19 restrictions, Nicola Sturgeon said on Tuesday.
The First Minister also introduced new curbs on hospitality and urged people to ‘stay at home as much as possible’ until at least the first week of January.
It comes as Britain’s daily Covid cases have plateaued for the fifth day in a row as an expert claimed that the Omicron wave may have peaked already.
There were 90,629 infections in the past 24 hours across the UK, up 52 per cent on last Tuesday’s toll but down slightly on the figure yesterday — despite wild projections of up to a million daily infections by New Year,
Cases have remained flat since last Friday when they hit a peak of more than 93,000.
In London, which has become a hotbed for Omicron, the wave also appears to be slowing. A total of 20,491 cases were recorded in the capital today, down slightly on yesterday’s tally of 22,750.
The slowing statistics may be behind Boris Johnson‘s decision not to bring in tougher restrictions before Christmas, with the Prime Minister claiming today there was ‘not enough evidence to justify’ them.
Gloomy Government modelling presented to ministers last week said the mutant variant was doubling every two days and was infecting up to 400,000 daily by the weekend.
Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline that Mr Johnson had made the right decision because cases ‘look like they’ve peaked’.
