Britain didn’t need to roll out Covid booster jabs to the entire population, one of the country’s top virus experts has said, as he backed natural immunity as superior to vaccine immunity and said letting the virus circulate is “probably the best way to protect the population”. The Mail has more.
Sir John Bell, who served as Boris Johnson’s testing tsar and an early member of the vaccines taskforce, said he’s “not entirely sure” the nation needed top-up doses, which health chiefs said were vital for all adults to boost protection amid the Omicron wave last winter.
Third jabs have been offered to all over-16s and some at-risk 12 to 15-year-olds. And three rounds of seasonal booster jabs have been dished out to certain groups, including the over-50s, frontline NHS staff and carers.
But the Oxford University scientist said severe illness due to the virus has “essentially disappeared” and the jabs only provide short-term protection against catching Covid.
He called for the Government to “think quite hard” about its vaccination strategy – as letting the virus circulate among healthy people is “probably the best way to protect the population”.
The approach to boosters so far, which sees top-up doses given every three to six months, is estimated to cost between £4-5 billion annually.
Sir John was speaking to MPs on the Science and Technology Committee and Health and Social Care Committee as part of the inquiry into lessons learnt from the Covid pandemic.
Asked what the latest evidence showed on the effectiveness of boosters, Sir John said: “All three of the original vaccines – the AstraZeneca vaccine and the two mRNA vaccines – have been unbelievably effective at eliminating that really dreadful disease that caused so many deaths early on.
“And the durability of those vaccines in preventing those problems has been impressive. I’m not entirely sure that we even needed boosters. We don’t have any clear data on that.”
He added: “That syndrome associated with Covid virus has essentially now disappeared. We’re still getting some deaths but they’re largely in elderly people and people who often have Covid infections alongside other medical problems.”
Sir John noted that boosters are “probably a safe bet for the elderly”. But he suggested that others don’t need the jab.
Latest data suggest the top-up doses offer 67% protection against catching Covid – but this only really lasts for 70 days, he said.
Sir John added: “So, the boosters are not really providing any prolonged protection against transmission – you could have one now and by mid-January you would be getting very little protection against transmission.”
However, natural immunity – protection from a Covid infection rather than vaccine – lowers the risk of catching the virus for around six months, which is a “material amount”, he said.
And some people have protection for up to 10 months.
He told MPs: “I think we do need to think quite hard about our vaccination strategy with boosters now – because it may well be allowing the virus to circulate and transmit in populations not at risk of death is probably the best way to protect the population.”
Might there be another reason Dr. Bell is going cool on the jabs that he is not mentioning?
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Dame Kate Bingham, the former head of the vaccines taskforce, has said the current Covid jabs are “not good enough”. Giving evidence to the same parliamentary inquiry as Dr. Bell, she said: “Our vaccines currently are not good enough. We need to improve the quality of the vaccines, the durability, the ability to stop transmission, the way in which we give vaccines.”
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More cognitive dissonance from both of them.
Plus a bit of CYA, certainly on Prof. Bell’s part….
Bingham knows it’s futile anyway in her case.
we all know what happened to the less fortunate citizens of not so wealthy countries which couldn’t pay Pfizer price for the ‘unbelievably effective’ vaxxes. They all dead now… how sad
Yep. Especially Brazilia, India and South Africa — all depopulated wastelands now. So tragic.
So Dame Kate says we need more, more, more jabs.
Good luck with that, you fraud. People are waking up – well, except for those people who sadly are not waking up, but that is helping many others to wake up, even those who for obvious reasons do not want to think about how bad these pokes really are.
I wonder how many people are going to be willing to play unpaid lab rat for these frauds again?
We’re still getting some deaths but they’re largely in elderly people and people who often have Covid infections alongside other medical problems.
So, everything’s just as it was in 2020 before the jabberwocky was let lose in the UK, before we all got locked up at home 23 hours per day (save essential workers like government advisors who were partying in the workplace at that time), before the country was billions (if not trillions) of pounds poorer and before all the deaths due to neglect and loss of access to medical care, due to suicide out of desparation – of course – of those who were sacrificed to the jabberwocky itself.
It’s unfortunate that we don’t have gods anymore. If we still had, we could at least pray for a bolt out of the blue striking these lying hyenas down in the name of divine justice.
Words fail me.
Where oh where has this immunological genius – and from Oxford nonetheless – been for the last 3 years.
The point is, he should have known this from day one.
Does he actually know the first basic thing about immunology?
The man is an idiot.
May I respectively suggest that he, and everyone in power, read books and articles by probably the greatest immunologist there has ever been, Sir Macfarlane Burnett.
None of them are fit to lace his boots.
He certainly did know this from day one. He is – after all – only switching back to what was considered conventional wisdom until March 2020. After it’s now reasonably certain that this pandemic bandwagon has really been halted, the experts now lightly jump from the coach-box, bow graciously, smile at the awestruck population with their spotless teeth and say something like It was us who have stopped! With the miracle vaccines, we shot the extremely deadly killer of man! Thanks to us (and the miracle vaccines) you all got your lifes back safely! ([in extremly small print] Until next time folks, we’re not done with you yet!)
Repeat-vaxxing all of the country in circles while maintaining mask mandates, indoor contact bans and outdoor social distancing forever, what the one Jenny Harries (among others) was still calling for in Feburary this year, never really happened. No, no, no, you must remember this wrongly. And by the way, are you perhaps generally into conspiracy theories?
Bell is trying to cover his arse – badly. He’s also a damned lying firker.
No argument with that.
From being about 100% wrong the great Professor has. moved back about 10% in the right direction. Pardon me if I don’t cheer much.
And as for Ms Bingham: ‘the current Covid jabs are “not good enough”.’
Well I guess it’s for profound insights like that they get paid the big bucks. I wonder how long it took her to work that one out.
What on earth would we do without the likes of Bell and Bingham???
Seriously though, these people make me sick.
“these people make me sick.”
They are the bloody infection.
These people have made a lot of people sick one way and another. It’s definitely arse covering season as excess death signals are increasingly difficult to brush under the carpet, even under the aegis of the renamed Helen Keller Office of National Statistics. (Be great if they had the imagination/gumption to compare and contrast outcomes for vaxxed and unvaxxed – what a stroke of statistical genius that would be!!?!)
What a shower of sh***!
Especially now they have a better idea as to the number of unvaccinated. They should re-work all their vaccine effectiveness calculations and then get Professor Fenton to check their work.
Well put and great name by the way.
“And as for Ms Bingham: ‘the current Covid jabs are “not good enough”.’”
They are certainly much worse than useless. The question that springs to mind is whether universal vaccination with a super-effective and super-safe covid vaccine would be a good use of public money, or whether that money would bring more benefits being spent on other things. I know where my bet would be.
Covid was not an emergency and no general vaccine for the whole population was required. Money would have been better spent establishing more precise treatment protocols for acute cases using the drugs that seem to have worked in India and other places.
In NSW week after week, state Health Department figures show unjabbed don’t get sick enough to go to hospital, or die “with” Covid.
The highest rate is in 4* jabbed, then 3*, etc.
Conclusion- more jabs equals more risk of being hospitalised with or dying with Covid.
Not even mentioning deaths from the jabs.
Seems pretty clear, though we have been saying this for 2 years now.
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/covid-19/Documents/weekly-covid-overview-20221119.pdf
I see they still haven’t changed the text to match the facts revealed by the numbers. Good news about the lockdown fines being rescinded.
Small steps, but better than nothing.
Bill Clinton who has Covid-19 says ” I did NOT have sex with that booster”
“All three of the original vaccines – the AstraZeneca vaccine and the two mRNA vaccines – have been unbelievably effective at eliminating that really dreadful disease that caused so many deaths early on.”
Yeah right. Pull the other one it’s got bells on it.
Yep – I was with him until he came out with that. I guess it’s compelled speech these days, though.
Another authoritarian taking tiny steps away from the policy he endorsed.
He and his fellow authoritarians need to understand: We will never forget and never forgive.
Natural immunity is best unfortunately far too many people now have damaged immune systems thanks to the ‘experts’.