Latest updates: Pfizer vaccine 88% effective against symptomatic disease from the India variant after second dose, AstraZeneca jab 60% effective
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A big story overnight in the UK, prime minister Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff Dominic Cummings has claimed that ministers backed a policy of “herd immunity” then lied about having done so.
In an extraordinary salvo of tweets last night, just days before he is due to appear before a Commons inquiry, Cummings effectively accused health secretary, Matt Hancock, of lying about the “herd immunity” plan and talking “bullshit” when he denied it to the media.
The strategy of the British government in minimising the impact of Covid-19 is to allow the virus to pass through the entire population so that we acquire herd immunity, but at a much delayed speed so that those who suffer the most acute symptoms are able to receive the medical support they need, and such that the health service is not overwhelmed and crushed by the sheer number of cases it has to treat at any one time.
Related: Dominic Cummings claims ministers backed herd immunity against Covid
Family doctors in the UK are being forced out of their jobs after developing long Covid, prompting demands for the government to compensate NHS staff with the debilitating condition who cannot work.
GPs struggling with the condition have said they felt “shocked and betrayed” when their colleagues removed them from their posts because of prolonged sick leave.
Related: GPs stricken by long Covid ‘shocked and betrayed’ at being forced from jobs
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