NERVTAG chair Professor Peter Horby has warned that new strains of coronavirus could mean lockdown measures will stay in place for longer. After predicting that social distancing rules would begin to ease in Spring, Professor Horby said it is likely to continue for months. Boris Johnson has appealed to people to stay home and follow the rules after he revealed the new variant may be associated with “a higher degree of mortality”.
Speaking to LBC, Professor Horby said: “I hate to make predictions because you make yourself a hostage to fortune.
“I think before I have said by Spring we will be ok and actually I think with the new variants emerging that makes me less optimistic that that is the case.
“I think it will be longer than any of us want.
“It’s not going to be a smooth ride to the finish.
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“It’s going to be a bit of a rollercoaster where we get new bits of information that are sometimes positive, sometimes negative.
“But I think it will be many more months unfortunately until we start to see the end of it.”
He added: “The new variant with increased transmissibility has meant we’ve had to put in place stronger restrictions than anyone wanted perhaps for longer than anyone wanted.”
It comes as scientists have warned there can be no early easing of lockdown rules after evidence the mutant coronavirus variant which emerged in the southeast of England may be more deadly than the original strain.
The Prime Minister said the Government could have to bring in further restrictions on travel following a warning that other new variants found in South Africa and Brazil may be more resistant to the vaccines that have been developed.
Meanwhile, the British Medical Association has reportedly written to chief medical officer for England Professor Chris Whitty calling for the gap between doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to be reduced to six weeks.
The private letter, seen by the BBC, said the current plans of people waiting up to 12 weeks for a second dose – which Health Secretary Matt Hancock said is supported by data from an Israeli study – are “difficult to justify”.
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It said: “The absence of any international support for the UK’s approach is a cause of deep concern and risks undermining public and the profession’s trust in the vaccination programme.”
At a sombre No 10 news briefing on Friday, the Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said early evidence suggested the new UK variant could increase mortality by almost a third in men in their 60s.
His warning followed a briefing by scientists on the Government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) which concluded there was a “realistic possibility” that it was associated with an increased risk of death.
It was already known that the new variant was up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original – leading to a tightening of restrictions across the UK from late December onwards.
