UK Vaccine Minister: All Over Age 50 Must Be Vaccinated Before Lockdown Lift Begins

By PFW News

UK Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi says that lockdown restrictions will not be lifted until all over the age 50 receive the COVID-19 vaccine, a decision he claims could push the return to normalcy into the summer.

Zahawi, the top bureaucrat over the country’s vaccine roll out, clarified when speaking to The Sun on Tuesday that the government ideally wants to see the top 9 age categories vaccinated in the first phase of dose administration, which includes everyone over 50.

“Is your message to the country and to your own back benches, forget mid-February, forget the 8th of March … not until we’ve done everybody over the age of 50 can we can we really talk about getting back to life, anything like normal?” a radio host with The Sun asked Zahawi, to which the Minister responded …

We’ll do that as quickly as possible … the prime minster has made it very clear that on the 22nd of February there will be a road map for how we intend to reopen the economy, beginning with schools on the 8th of March and then gradually the rest of the economy.

Zahawi would insist that the UK is on pace to have jabbed nearly everyone in the most Covid vulnerable group – those over 70 – within the next 11 days.

Despite this group accounting for the vast majority of Covid deaths, the Minister claims this is still not enough to lift freedom crushing restrictions.

“We want to reopen schools, reopen our economy, get our lives back, but never have to go back into another severe lockdown like the one we’re all experiencing and suffering from at the moment,” he said.

The Vaccine Minister would espouse a slow moving method to lifting lockdown measures that relies heavily on data.

You’ve got to make sure that your vaccination program has protected the top nine categories in phase one – that is 99% of mortality.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced during a Tuesday Downing Street press conference that there would indeed be a road map for exiting lockdown presented on February 22.

The people of England are currently strapped under harsh lockdown rules that restrict them from being social with anyone outside their home or “support bubble” without a government-approved “reasonable excuse.”

People breaking these rules can face fines, including an £800 penalty for those attending house parties of more than 15 people and a £10,000 fine for the organizers, reports BBC News.

Source: Planet Free Will

Image: UK Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi (L) seated next to Editorial Director of BBC News Kamal Ahmed (R) | Policy Exchange/Flickr