Health secretary warns of bad flu season due to concerning levels of immunity

Published

4 years ago

September 12, 2021

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Sajid Javid has told Sky News he is “concerned” that the UK could witness a bad flu season due to there being “a lot less immunity” around to the virus because of the COVID restrictions that were in place last winter.

The health secretary said the government is preparing to roll out “the biggest flu vaccination programme this country has ever seen” following concerns that many more elderly and vulnerable people could contract the virus than that did last year.

Mr Javid added that, for those over 50, “getting your flu jab is going to be as important as having your COVID jab“.

Back in July, the government announced plans for more than 35 million people, including secondary school pupils, to be offered a free flu vaccine this winter.

Ministers said the flu vaccine, to be rolled out from September, would be available to:

• All children aged two and three on 31 August 2021

• All children in primary and all children in school years 7 to 11 in secondary school

• Those aged six months to under 50 years in clinical risk groups

• Pregnant women

• Those aged 50 years and over

• Unpaid carers

• Close contacts of immunocompromised individuals

• Frontline health and adult social care staff

The plans stated that those aged two and three, primary school children and secondary school children up to Year 11 would be offered the nasal spray vaccine.

Unveiling the plans two months ago, the Department of Health and Social Care acknowledged that “it is possible there will be higher levels of flu this winter”.

Meanwhile, Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England (PHE), has previously warned that the coming flu season is “highly unpredictable”.

“The flu vaccine is safe, effective and protects millions of people each year from what can be a devastating illness,” Dr Doyle said in July.

“Last winter, flu activity was extremely low, but this is no reason for complacency as it means less people have built up a defence against the virus. Combined with the likelihood that COVID-19 will still be circulating, this makes the coming flu season highly unpredictable.”

Speaking on Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday programme, Mr Javid said flu jab programme preparations were under way.

“Winter, autumn, it is not just COVID that likes that part of the year – it is other viruses too,” he said.

“You have just mentioned another really important thing that we have got to prepare for and that is flu.

“I have already mentioned the preparations for boosters and I think that is going to be an important part of our defence, but when it comes to flu, what we have been planning the past few weeks is the biggest flu vaccination programme this country has ever seen.

“Why am I concerned about that? Because last year we didn’t have much flu because of all the other controls that were in place. And that means there is a lot less immunity around to flu than normal.

“And we know in some years, in a bad flu year, just how terrible it can be.

“So, alongside our continuing COVID vaccine programme, we are going to have our biggest ever flu programme – and I would say to those people listening, certainly those who are over 50, getting your flu jab is going to be as important as having your COVID jab.”

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon later told Sky News: “We are going into, as everybody across the UK is, a very challenging and difficult winter period – so it is really important that we keep a very close eye on what is happening.”

On Thursday, the health secretary said he was “confident” COVID-19 booster jabs will start being administered later this month after the UK’s medicines regulator said the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines are safe to use.

The move by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) would allow the government to begin a COVID-19 booster programme if it decides to proceed with one.

Mr Javid said the news is “very welcome” but he will wait for a final opinion from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) before giving the go-ahead.

However, he added: “I’m confident our booster programme will start later this month but I’m still waiting for final advice.”

The MHRA issued guidance saying Pfizer boosters can be given to anyone, regardless of which doses they have had previously, while AstraZeneca boosters should only be provided to those who previously had that jab.

The JCVI is examining whether booster shots are necessary for the elderly and vulnerable, with planning under way for a potential rollout this month.

Committee members are expected to decide who should get a third jab in the next few days.

But the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has told wealthier countries to refrain from offering booster shots until the end of the year in order to prioritise first doses for people in poorer countries.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “appalled” by comments from pharmaceutical manufacturers who claim vaccine supplies are high enough to allow for both third jabs and vaccinations in other countries.

Last week, the government announced that around half a million people who have a severely weakened immune system will be offered a third COVID-19 jab.

This extra dose will be offered to anyone over 12 who was severely immunosuppressed at the time of their first or second dose, including those with leukaemia, advanced HIV, and recent organ transplants – but it comes separately from the plans for a booster programme, which would see a larger number of people offered a third COVID jab.

Politics

SEC Chair calls tokenization an ‘innovation’ in sign of regulatory shift

Published

4 hours ago

July 2, 2025

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<div>SEC Chair calls tokenization an 'innovation' in sign of regulatory shift</div>

In a media interview, Chair Paul Atkins pledged to empower businesses to innovate through tokenization.

Politics

Just 25% of public think Sir Keir Starmer will win next election – with welfare row partly to blame

Published

7 hours ago

July 2, 2025

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Just 25% of public think Sir Keir Starmer will win next election - with welfare row partly to blame

Only a quarter of British adults think Sir Keir Starmer will win the next general election, as the party’s climbdown over welfare cuts affects its standing with the public.

A fresh poll by Ipsos, shared with Sky News, also found 63% do not feel confident the government is running the country competently, similar to levels scored by previous Conservative administrations under Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak in July 2022 and February 2023, respectively.

Politics latest: ‘A moment of intense peril’ for PM

The survey of 1,080 adults aged 18-75 across Great Britain was conducted online between 27 and 30 June 2025, when Labour began making the first of its concessions, suggesting the party’s turmoil over its own benefits overhaul is partly to blame.

The prime minister was forced into an embarrassing climbdown on Tuesday night over his plans to slash welfare spending, after it became apparent he was in danger of losing the vote owing to a rebellion among his own MPs.

The bill that was put to MPs for a vote was so watered down that the most controversial element – to tighten the eligibility criteria for personal independence payments (PIP) – was put on hold, pending a review into the assessment process by minister Stephen Timms that is due to report back in the autumn.

The government was forced into a U-turn after Labour MPs signalled publicly and privately that the previous concession made at the weekend to protect existing claimants from the new rules would not be enough.

While the bill passed its first parliamentary hurdle last night, with a majority of 75, 49 Labour MPs still voted against it – the largest rebellion in a prime minister’s first year in office since 47 MPs voted against Tony Blair’s Lone Parent benefit in 1997, according to Professor Phil Cowley from Queen Mary University.

It left MPs to vote on only one element of the original plan – the cut to Universal Credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.

An amendment brought by Labour MP Rachael Maskell, which aimed to prevent the bill progressing to the next stage, was defeated but 44 Labour MPs voted for it.

The incident has raised questions about Sir Keir’s authority just a year after the general election delivered him the first Labour landslide victory in decades.

And on Wednesday, Downing Street insisted Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, was “not going anywhere” after her tearful appearance in the House of Commons during prime minister’s questions sparked speculation about her political future.

The Ipsos poll also found that two-thirds of British adults are not confident Labour has the right plans to change the way the benefits system works in the UK, including nearly half of 2024 Labour voters.

Keiran Pedley, director of UK Politics at Ipsos, said: “Labour rows over welfare reform haven’t just harmed the public’s view on whether they can make the right changes in that policy area, they are raising wider questions about their ability to govern too.

“The public is starting to doubt Labour’s ability to govern competently and seriously at the same levels they did with Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak’s governments. Labour will hope that this government doesn’t end up going the same way.”

Politics

Emotional Reeves a painful watch – and a reminder of tough decisions ahead

Published

7 hours ago

July 2, 2025

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Emotional Reeves a painful watch - and a reminder of tough decisions ahead

It is hard to think of a PMQs like it – it was a painful watch.

The prime minister battled on, his tone assured, even if his actual words were not always convincing.

But it was the chancellor next to him that attracted the most attention.

Rachel Reeves looked visibly upset.

It is hard to know for sure right now what was going on behind the scenes, the reasons – predictable or otherwise – why she appeared to be emotional, but it was noticeable and it was difficult to watch.

Reeves looks visibly upset as Starmer defends welfare U-turn – politics latest

Her spokesperson says it was a personal matter that they will not be getting into.

Even Kemi Badenoch, not usually the most nimble PMQs performer, singled her out. “She looks absolutely miserable,” she said.

Anyone wondering if Kemi Badenoch can kick a dog when it’s down has their answer today.

The Tory leader asked the PM if he could guarantee his chancellor’s future: he could not. “She has delivered, and we are grateful for it,” Sir Keir said, almost sounding like he was speaking in the past tense.

It is important to say: Rachel Reeves’s face during one PMQs session is not enough to tell us everything, or even anything, we need to know.

But given the government has just faced its most bruising week yet, it was hard not to speculate. The prime minister’s spokesperson has said since PMQs that the chancellor has not offered her resignation and is not going anywhere.

But Rachel Reeves has surely seen an omen of the impossible decisions ahead.

How will she plug the estimated £5.5bn hole left by the welfare climbdown in the nation’s finances? Will she need to tweak her iron clad fiscal rules? Will she come back for more tax rises? What message does all of this send to the markets?

If a picture tells us a thousand words, Rachel Reeves’s face will surely be blazoned on the front pages tomorrow as a warning that no U-turn goes unpunished.