The Times - UK (2022-01-19)

12 Wednesday January 19 2022 | the times

News

the policy. Dr Fui Mee Quek, a GP in

Sutton, south London, has written to

Boris Johnson, saying the requirement

means she is “being forced to stop work,

which I am very upset about”.

She said she had always been a vac-

cine advocate but added: “I decided not

to have the Covid vaccine as I felt there

was not enough long-term safety data

on the novel mRNA vaccines.”

Vaccine experts emphasise that the

Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA

vaccines have been approved as safe

and effective. Quek said comparisons

with the hepatitis B vaccine, already a

requirement for healthcare workers,

were unjustified as immunity lasted

“for decades” with the older vaccine

whereas the coronavirus vaccine

needed boosting.

She said that like Steve James, the

anaesthetist at King’s College Hospital

in south London who confronted the

health secretary over the policy this

month, she had been infected by coro-

navirus, adding: “Fortunately for me I

qualified 11 years before him and... I

can afford to stop working. Dr James

and so many others probably cannot.”

Quek said: “We do not want to be re-

assigned to a role with no patient con-

tact. This is what we trained for; this is

what we love.”

The Department of Health and

Social Care said: “Health and social

care workers are responsible for look-

ing after some of the most vulnerable

people in society, many of whom are

more likely to suffer serious health

consequences if exposed to the virus.

This is about patient safety.”

6 Morrisons has become the first

supermarket to cut sick pay for unvacci-

nated employees. The chain said un-

jabbed workers would be entitled only

to the minimum statutory sick pay of

£96.35 a week if told to isolate after

being exposed to a positive coronavirus

case and testing negative. Unvaccinat-

ed staff who had tested positive or were

displaying symptoms of the virus would

be entitled to full sick pay.

Healthcare workers must take their

medicine, leading article, page 27

Letting off steam A worker takes in some fresh air while vaping in central York

News Coronavirus

Surgeries fear an exodus of GPs

Kat Lay Health Editor The national picture

How many are in hospital?

There are 19,450 patients being treated in

hospital. 713 patients are on ventilators. An

additional 1,892 patients have been admitted,

down 2.9 per cent in the seven days to

January 14 when this data was last updated

How many people have Covid-19?

There were 94,432 new cases reported

yesterday, bringing the total to 15,399,

or 230.5 for every 1,000 people

-38.9% decrease from seven days ago

(based on seven-day moving average)

Oct Jan

2021

Apr Jul Oct Jan

2022

0

50,

100,

150,

200,

Daily cases

National

R number

1.1 to 1.

Seven-day

average

Hospital admissions

Seven-day average

Oct Jan

2021

Apr Jul Oct Jan

2022

0

1,

2,

3,

4,

How many have died?

Yesterday, there were 438 deaths reported,

bringing the total number of deaths in the

past seven days to 1,904. The rolling

average number of daily deaths is 272 ,

up from 237.1 a day a week ago

Deaths

Seven-day average

Oct Jan

2021

Apr Jul Oct Jan

2022

0

500

1,

1,

Figures as of 6pm yesterday Source: Our World

in Data (latest figures available) and gov.uk.

Note: Selected countries.

Percentage of population who have

received at least one vaccine dose

(total doses administered in brackets)

Daily

(Jan 17)

First dose

15,

Boosters

(Jan 17)

73,

Second

48m

Second

26,

Total

36.5m

First dose

52.1m

People

vaccinated

in UK

How Britain compares

UAE 99.0% (23m)

Portugal 93.8% (20.4m)

Malta 88.4% (1.2m)

Spain 86.5% (87.2m)

Canada 84.4% (74.3m)

Italy 82% (120.9m)

Australia 81.5% (46.4m)

France 79.3% (132.2m)

UK 76.7% (136.7m)

Double dose halves risk

of developing long Covid

Tom Whipple Science Editor

Vaccination appears to cut the prob-

ability of getting long Covid by at least

half, a new study has found.

The research, which looked at 1,

previously infected people, found that

those who had two doses of the vaccine

before becoming infected were 50 per

cent less likely to report suffering head-

aches and 60 per cent less likely to

report tiredness and muscle pain.

An estimated 1.3 million people in

Britain have persistent symptoms more

than four weeks after infection, accord-

ing to the Office for National Statistics.

With parts of the world gradually

emerging from the pandemic, one of

the key concerns is how much of a

burden long Covid will be on health

services in the future.

Michael Edelstein, from Bar Ilan

University in Israel, was the senior

author on the latest research. He said

that “obviously it would be a very good

thing”, if it transpired that vaccines

eliminated much of the risk of long

Covid but he cautioned he would want

to see more evidence.

The findings come from people who

were tested between March 2020 and

last November, and involved asking

people to fill in a questionnaire listing

any long-term symptoms.

Danny Altmann, a professor of

Immunology at Imperial College Lon-

donsuggested that long Covid was

caused by people not clearing the virus

properly, something vaccines help

them achieve.

Edelstein’s study found evidence that

vaccines may be even better at prevent-

ing long Covid than their top line esti-

mate. The researchers also found that

the prevalence of long Covid symptoms

in people who had never had Covid was

similar to those who had been infected

post vaccination. This suggested that,

in reality, the vaccine almost entirely

removed the risk of long Covid.

Tory MPs decry ‘doomsday modellers’

Conservative MPs have criticised the
government’s use of data modelling
during the pandemic, with one alleging
the creation of a “grotesque sense of
fear to manipulate behaviour”.
Steve Baker and Bob Seely, who have
both been critical of Covid policy and
the use of modelling, spoke at a West-
minster Hall debate last night.
Seely described the use of “doomsday
modellers”, while Baker called for
“institutional reform”.
However, a minister insisted that the
models were not intended as predic-
tions, but “nevertheless past modelling
has proved to be remarkably accurate
in many cases”.
Seely said: “Thanks to some
questionable modelling, poorly pre-
sented, and often misrepresented, I
think it’s true to say that never before

has so much harm been done to so

many by so few based on so little

questionable potentially flawed data”,

adding: “I believe the use of modelling is

pretty much getting up there for

national scandal... Modelling and

forecasts was the ammunition that

drove lockdown and created a climate

of manipulated fear.”

Seely said he did not doubt modelling

was important and that there had been

“some good modelling, but too often it

has been drowned out by hysterical

forecasts”.

Baker said he did not blame the

modellers personally but the system,

and called for an office of research

integrity to insist the models used are

“far higher quality”.

The SNP’s Brendan O’Hara

dismissed the MPs’ criticism as a

“libertarian pile-on against scientists”.

Fleur Anderson, the shadow Cabinet

Office minister, said that she welcomed

interrogation of the science and that

modelling should be included in the

Covid-19 inquiry. However, she said

that the Tory MP’s questioning had

come with an “ideological bent”.

Maggie Throup, the health minister,

thanked scientists and modellers for

their work, and said that modelling was

“a tool to enable ministers to make

evidence-based” decisions. She said

modelling was “not a crystal ball” and

made clear that modellers did not claim

to be able to predict the future.

She added: “Contrary to how they

may be presented in the media,

modelling outputs from Sage are not

forecasts, nor do they only focus on the

most pessimistic outcomes”.

GPs say an exodus of staff due to
mandatory coronavirus vaccination is
“a significant concern”, with the dead-
line for health workers to have a first jab
just over a fortnight away.
From April 1 everyone working in
health or social care who has direct
contact with patients must have had
two doses of a coronavirus vaccine. In
order to meet the deadline they must
have received a first dose by February 3.
Vaccination figures for NHS staff
working in community settings such as
GP surgeries have not been published,
but figures based on trusts show that
more than 10 per cent of staff in some
areas are yet to receive a first dose.
Across England 5.7 per cent of staff are
unvaccinated.
Professor Martin Marshall, chair-
man of the Royal College of GPs, said:
“Whilst we don’t have the data in gener-
al practice to understand how many GP
staff will be affected by making vaccina-
tion a condition of employment, it is a
significant concern when we’re work-
ing under intense workforce and work-
load pressures that are being exacer-
bated by Covid, and this is one of the
reasons the college opposed this move.”
There were 186,796 people working
in general practice in November last

year, the latest data available, of whom
45,303 were GPs.
The government has admitted it is
unlikely to meet a pledge to increase
GP numbers by 6,000 by 2025, and the
British Medical Association has
warned that GPs and their staff are
increasingly exhausted and burnt out.
Marshall said: “The focus now must
be on urging as many unvaccinated
people working in the NHS as possible
to get vaccinated and addressing the
concerns they have about the vaccine”.
NHS England has suggested that un-
vaccinated staff be offered one-to-one
conversations in which they can dis-
cuss their concerns and be given access
to information materials. But from Feb-
ruary 4 they will be called into formal
meetings to start dismissal proceed-
ings. While some may be redeployed to
back room roles, in many cases this will
not be possible, NHS guidance says.
One GP who has refused vaccination
against coronavirus and so is leaving
her NHS surgery after 28 years has
begged the prime minister to rethink

Fui Mee Quek, a

GP, says she is

“being forced to

stop work” due to

the jabs policy