Boris Johnson tonight rejected a move to Conservative pressure to push forward the reopening of schools in England as he said he intends to meet his March 8 deadline at the earliest for return to classes.
The Prime Minister warned that reopening schools too early could bring the country back and threaten the progress made during the lockout.
He said his date of March 8 represents the ‘careful and cautious approach’ and he does not intend to depart from it.
A growing number of Conservative MPs are pushing for the PM to bring schools back earlier than expected as coronavirus cases continue to fall while a critical study finds that the AstraZeneca vaccine is cutting the transmission of the disease.
A new study from Oxford University showed that the injection offers 76 percent protection up to three months after the first dose, and can significantly reduce the potential for infection.
Nicola Sturgeon put pressure on Mr Johnson yesterday after she said pupils in Scotland would start retreating from 22 February.
Boris Johnson said tonight that he intends to meet his March 8 deadline for reopening schools
Conservative MPs hold on to new inquiry recommending AstraZeneca vaccine reduce transmission while arguing for classroom reopening earlier than planned
Mark Harper, chairman of BP’s gray Covid Recovery Group, said schools should only be closed for ‘very good cause’
Leading Conservatives seized on the AstraZeneca news to call for the country to recover and run faster, with devastating damage to children’s education and the economy.
Mark Harper, chairman of the Covid Recovery Group of Conservative MPs, marked Ms Sturgeon ‘s date for reopening schools and questioned why England could not do something similar.
The former Conservative whip said: ‘The PM said last week that reopening schools was a “national priority”.
‘Now that Scotland has signaled that schools are likely to return from 22 February, there must be a good reason for keeping English – medium schools closed for a longer period. ‘
However, government sources played the idea that the schedule could be accelerated, with case rates still high and fears of mutant sequences.
‘It’s March 8, unchanged,’ said one person. ‘It’s good news for the AstraZeneca vaccine, but stable as it goes. ‘
Mr Johnson made the same point at a press conference on Downing Street tonight, saying: ‘We need to judge the effectiveness of vaccines in lowering mortality and reducing serious illness. .
‘That’s the judgment we’re going to make in a week [February] 15th. We’re going to take a look at all the data, we’ve seen some promising stuff from Israel but as far as I know we still don’t see the kind of final data we need on it. that’s the main point.
‘Then we want to wait to make sure that after 15 February we leave three weeks for all JCVI consortia one to four, that the most vulnerable groups … have been allowed to give them their vaccine immunity and as you know it will take about three weeks for it to enter properly.
That speaks to a date around March 8th. Then of course you have to give the schools two weeks notice to open.
‘For these reasons we think that’s the sensible date. I would just say to people who, sensibly, want to go faster, I share that anxiety and that urgency because we fought so hard and for so long to try to keep schools open, I think that was a reasonable thing to do, but the things that we will not provide. We do not want to do now that we are making progress with the roll – out of the vaccine and there is a record. We have no time for the way forward, we do not want to be taken back.
‘So we think this is the careful and careful approach and I think it’s much better to stick to that.’
Cutting transmission is the best way to lift the toughest restrictions on locking faster and that means that infection rates may come down faster than they would otherwise.
However, there are still concerns that new variants of coronavirus – which will reduce the effectiveness of vaccines – could make matters slower.
Earlier, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Breakfast: ‘We know from previous tests that vaccines are safe and effective in protecting the person.
‘We now know that the Oxford vaccine is also reducing transmission and that will help us all get out of this pandemic, in fact, which is why it is good news. is this that we should welcome. ‘
He told Times Radio that hospital numbers were falling and deaths were falling.
Mr Hancock said Oxford data suggested ‘we can have high confidence that this will come down quickly’.
He also said that data showing that delaying the second dose of the vaccine by up to 12 weeks could increase its effectiveness ‘sexually’ supports the Government’s strategy of extending the time between doses.
‘This report in Oxford is good news, it supports the strategy we have adopted and it shows the world that the Oxford vaccine is working effectively. , ‘he told Sky News.
Professor Adam Finn, of the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI), praised Oxford’s findings, saying that the discovery of a spread was ‘very, very good news’.
He said he thought ‘it indicates that these vaccines will be able to reduce transmission to some extent’, but said there were still issues with new variants of coronavirus.
When asked if the new series showed anti-vaccination, he told Times Radio: ‘Yes, they do and that’s something I think we were expecting. all the time.
‘So it’s going to be a catch-up game going on – the vaccines will keep working, but as the virus moves they won’t work as well and we have to change them to bring them back to the high level of protection.
‘But that’s what we do with the flu all the time. It’s not something that is scary or unexpected at all, but it is a fact.
‘There’s no silver bullet, we’re not going to solve this problem overnight, it’s going to take time.’
Professor Andrew Pollard, chief investigator of the Oxford vaccine trial, said his team was working hard to look at the effectiveness of the injection against the Kent strain of coronavirus that has been reported. across the UK, adding that data should be available soon.
He said scientists were confident that vaccines against this difference would have a positive effect, but that others showed that more disturbing mutations ‘were going to be much harder to prevent from spreading’.
However, he told BBC Breakfast that vaccines in general should still be protected from serious infection and could be converted to mutant strains.
He said: ‘I think one of the things we know about these new variables is that they are making changes that allow them to evade human immune responses so that they can still spread.
So it means that over time, the virus is likely to find ways to adapt and keep people going despite natural and immunosuppressive infections or from the vaccines.
‘That doesn’t mean we won’t still have protection from a serious infection, because there are lots of different ways our immune system fights the virus – it’s much more about the virus being able to keep going, rather than because it will harm us.
‘If we have to update the vaccines, it is indeed a very simple process that will only take a few months, apart from the great efforts that everyone made last year, to run the major tests and read out. ‘
Regarding those who received the vaccine in the Oxford trial but could still be exposed to the virus, Dr Pollard said: ‘There are two questions that need to be asked – one is, how much virus are they shedding? And the other one, how long?
‘We are looking at that and we should have an answer to that important question soon. ‘
Mr Harper said in a statement issued by the CRG: ‘With better and better news throughout the day about the spread of the vaccine and its effectiveness, the government needs to start addressing the issue of the harm that the measures we are taking are. to control Covid, as well as the harms caused by Covid himself.
‘Covid is a deadly disease, but locks and restraints do great damage to human health and livelihoods and we need to pick them up as soon as it is safe to do so.’
He said: ‘Every hour of classroom learning is lost as a tragedy for the children of the country and the closure of schools has a major impact on children’s health and wellbeing.
‘As soon as the top four risk groups are vaccinated by 15 February, and protected by 8 March, the Government must start easing the restrictions. We need to show the public how the good news about vaccine distribution is turning to a return to normal life.
‘The four main groups at risk make up about 88% of deaths and around 55% of hospitals from Covid, and in early January the Health Secretary told MPs he would be monitoring hospital standards and death ” like a hawk ”. ‘