Give us a boost: The worrying situation with boosters splashes Gordon Rayner has several of today’s papers. On the front of the Telegraph, Sarah Knapton, Lizzie Roberts and Harry Yorke report that two-thirds of care home residents are still awaiting their third jab. Inside. The initial jab rollout saw highs of 600,000 vaccinations a day; now they’re down at around 200,000. Just 1.3 million of the 2.3 million over-80 s whatsapp number database eligible have had their booster. Nearly 5 million eligible over-50s still haven’t. NHS England concedes 2.4 million eligible people have not yet had the call to get their third dose.
Blame game: Rayner writes Gordon Rayner has
The NHS is blaming the public, saying take-up of boosters is sluggish. GPs are blaming the NHS. Politicians are blaming each other. Boris Johnson is ‘upset’ and has demanded answers from ministers.” A Whitehall source tells him: “The NHS isn’t focusing on this with the same verve as they did the first time round. The booster programme has been left to the classic regional NHS bureaucracy.”
Public service:
The Sun splashes on an editorial calling on its readers to get their boosters when called. The Express leads on a similar call from health leaders. The Mirror’s page one criticizes the booster “crisis” and quotes Imperial’s prof. Neil Ferguson agreeing “Plan B may need to be implemented.” You know whenever you see Professor Lockdown’s face on TV things aren’t going well.
What’s Plan B?
The senior government insider confirmed to Playbook last night that if the whatsapp filter hospitalization numbers do get considerably worse, then they have a “plan in place.” That would involve the return of mandatory masks, COVID certification at mass events the role of companies in social problems and the call to change the world and potentially a change to the guidance on working from home. Worth stressing that by all accounts, whatever the grumblings of the scientific advisers, we are some way from this happening. It’s also not clear whether these very minor measures would make much difference to case numbers.