Sharing Covid jabs with rest of the world is key to Brits going on holiday again, says Sage expert

SHARING coronavirus vaccines with the rest of the world is key if Brits want to go on holiday again, one expert has claimed.

The UK is racing ahead when it comes to Covid vaccinations and has so far given 28.6 million Brits a first dose of a vaccine.

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There are two jabs currently being rolled out across the UK, the Pfizer/BioNTech jab and the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab.

Over 2.5 million Brits have had two doses of the jabs, but one Sage expert today warned that other countries would need to be vaccinated if Brits wanted to go abroad.

Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, said ensuring every country receives vaccine supplies is the best protection against new variants.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today Programme this morning, he said there was a risk that new variants could appear anywhere and "come back to haunt us in our own countries".

He said: "The best way out of this is to make vaccines available globally.

"We will have to think very hard about summer holidays and travel in the summer, but the best answer to that is to bring the epidemic under control in the UK, and to make vaccines available globally, and then we can get travel, we can get economics and we can get all of our health and education back much much faster.

"Supplying vaccines to the world is actually the way we can protect ourselves in our own countries as well, because the biggest risk at the moment for this pandemic is that new variants appear anywhere in the world and eventually come back to haunt us in our own countries.

"And if we allow that to happen by increasing transmission around the world and by not offering vaccines around the world then this pandemic will continue for months and years to come."

Sir Jeremy said that this is a public health necessity and would be crucial on a social, financial and economic scale.

His comments come as Europe has seen a large increase in coronavirus infections.

Ministers are concerned about France, where up to 40 per cent of cases are said to be worrying variants like the South African strain.

The PM told MPs: "I'm afraid we cant rule out tougher measures and we will put them in if necessary".

On April 5 he will reveal more details of what experts will recommend for after lockdown is lifted – as no final decisions have been made.

But Mr Johnson warned: "It's looking difficult on the continent".

Parts of France have been plunged into another lockdown and across Europe cases are rising in many countries.

And the PM said putting France on the travel "red list" was "something that we will have to look at", as well as testing hauliers coming in transporting goods.

Germany also this week reversed a decision to implement tougher lockdown measures over the Easter holidays after cases also spiked there.

Pictures coming in from Europe have shown empty vaccination sites despite European countries having stockpiled thousands of Covid jabs.

The EU has also been threatening to implement a ban on vaccine exports to the UK.

Matt Hancock ripped into the bloc, saying it's lagging behind because it signed sub-standard contracts with drug makers.

He told the FT: "I believe that free trading nations follow the law of contracts.

“They have a ‘best efforts’ contract and we have an exclusivity deal. Our contract trumps theirs.

"It’s called contract law — it’s very straightforward.”

When it comes to infections in Europe, Sir Jeremy said Europe is going through the sort of epidemic curve the UK did earlier this year "and will have a terrible month or two ahead".

He said that the UK would experience a further rise in cases but that the vaccine rollout means that there will be "less people going into hospital and dying".

Sir Jeremy said that the "best way of getting jobs, getting livelihoods, getting children back into school, is to bring the epidemic to an end.

"The current plan, the cautious plan to lift restrictions, is the best way to reduce death, reduce hospitalisation and get schools back and get the economy going again.

"That is the fastest way out. That was the lesson from 2020 – go cautiously out of an epidemic curve and you'll have your economy back much, much quicker."

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