LONDON: A scientist advising the UK government has warned that early lifting of lockdown measures could see a resurgence of coronavirus disease cases leading to a return to restrictions, despite the country’s rapid vaccination program.
Prof. Steven Riley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), said vaccines did not mean social controls should end, adding “no vaccine is perfect.”
Riley told BBC Radio 4: “We are certainly going to be in the situation where we can allow more infection in the community, but there is a limit.
“In the short term, if we were to allow a very large wave of infection, that wave will find all the people who couldn’t have the vaccine for very good reason (and) those people who had the vaccine but unfortunately it didn’t give them the protection they need,” he added.
“I think scientists are genuinely worried. We don’t want to show that it is an excellent (but) not perfect vaccine by having another large wave in the UK,” Riley said.
“If for some reason we were to choose to just pretend it (coronavirus) wasn’t here any more, then there is the potential to go back to a wave that is a similar size to the one that we are in now.”
UK scientist warns: Vaccines not the end of virus controls
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UK scientist warns: Vaccines not the end of virus controls
- Prof. Steven Riley said vaccines did not mean social controls should end, adding “no vaccine is perfect”
- We are certainly going to be in the situation where we can allow more infection in the community, but there is a limit,” he said
Russia will examine Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ invite: Putin
- Invites were sent to dozens of world leaders with a request for $1 billion for a permanent seat on the board
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Russia would study US President Donald Trump’s invitation to join his “Board of Peace.”
“The Russian foreign ministry has been charged with studying the documents that were sent to us and to consult on the topic with our strategic partners,” Putin said during a televised government meeting. “It is only after that we’ll be able to reply to the invitation.”
He said that Russia could pay the billion dollars being asked for permanent membership “from the Russian assets frozen under the previous American administration.”
He added that the assets could also be used “to reconstruct the territories damaged by the hostilities, after the conclusion of a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.”
Invites were sent to dozens of world leaders with a request for $1 billion for a permanent seat on the board.
Although originally meant to oversee Gaza’s rebuilding, the board’s charter does not seem to limit its role to the Palestinian coastal enclave and appears to want to rival the United Nations, drawing the ire of some US allies including France.
