Boris Johnson’s press secretary said she couldn’t rule out the prime minister volunteering to take the new coronavirus vaccine live on television.
Addressing media on Wednesday, Allegra Stratton admitted that Prime Minister Johnson could do so to encourage public update of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which the government had the same day announced had been approved for use.
Ms Stratton said, according to Sky News: “We all know the character of the prime minister, I don’t think it would be something that he would rule out.
“But what we also know is that he wouldn’t want to take a jab that should be for somebody who is extremely vulnerable, clinically vulnerable, and who should be getting it before him.”
The remark comes after Health Secretary Matt Hancock volunteered to be injected live on air after Good Morning Britain‘s Piers Morgan made the suggestion.
“I’ll come to where you are anytime next week if we can do this. Let’s do it together, live on air. It would be powerful – it would send the right message,” Mr Hancock told Mr Morgan on Wednesday.
The health minister added, however, that as both healthy middle-aged men, they would not be in the first group to be offered the vaccine.
“But if we can get that approved and if people think that’s reasonable then I’m up for doing that … if that can help anybody else, persuade anybody else that they should take the vaccine, then I think it’s worth it,” Hancock said.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises British health departments on immunisation, published its list of priority recipients of the vaccine — mostly older people, the vulnerable, frontline medical staff, and those living in care homes — in Phase One of the rollout, which is expected to commence next week.
JCVI, however, advised against pregnant women, women planning for pregnancy, and most children having the jab, owing to lack of data on its safety for those demographics.
A YouGov snap poll revealed that while 70 per cent said they are “confident” in the Pfizer vaccine (43 per cent “fairly confident”, 27 per cent “very confident”), one-in-five Britons are not, with 11 per cent said they are “not very confident” and nine per cent admitting they “are not confident at all”.
Polling did show that two-thirds of Britons support the idea of Health Secretary Hancock being vaccinated live on television.
YouGov also revealed a shift in position on mandatory vaccinations, with a plurality, 44 per cent, saying they would oppose making the vaccine “legally compulsory”, compared with 37 per cent who support the idea (11 per cent responded, “don’t know”).
Just two weeks ago, the pollster found that by 49 per cent to 34 per cent, Britons would support the government making it mandatory to have the injection.
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